


The Ties That Bind

by LadyShelley



Series: Team Rebuilding [8]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Action/Adventure, Canon Compliant, Episode Tag, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Post Episode: s02e11 The Hive
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:53:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 59,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26670007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyShelley/pseuds/LadyShelley
Summary: Recovery from the Wraith enzyme does not go as smooth for his team as Sheppard could hope and he takes everyone to the mainland for a little relaxation. Instead of a quiet few days, however, Sheppard, Rodney, and Ronon make a startling discovery, and Teyla begins to question her place among her people when a natural disaster strikes the Athosian village.
Relationships: Canon Relationships - Relationship
Series: Team Rebuilding [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1316210
Comments: 86
Kudos: 54





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to everyone who has read, commented, and/or left kudos on my other stories in this series. I'm glad you're enjoying them!
> 
> This story starts a little before the end of _The Hive_. Let's just say things in the episode wrapped up a little too quickly for me.
> 
> As always, these scribbles are much improved thanks to my beta reader, Lyn.

John pulled the flight stick to the left, narrowly avoiding one of the dots on the heads up display as it closed on his position. An outline appeared on the display in front of him, and it took him a few precious seconds to realise what he was seeing was the first hive ship, and that he was on a collision course with the superstructure. He pushed the stick forward, diving under the ship, then slew to his right to avoid another swarm of darts heading for the outline of the planet in the near distance.

He'd been relieved to discover that flying the dart wasn't too hard, once he figured out where his horizon was in the constant stream of data flowing over his head. Pitch, roll, and yaw were the same in any galaxy. No, the challenge was trying to figure out what the ship was telling him on the display since he didn't have Rodney's tablet to translate the Wraith text for him this time.

John felt a smile quirk his lips as he thought about a Wraith drone climbing into a dart and finding the tablet computer strapped inside.

Must have been one confused Wraith, John thought to himself as he avoided another group of dots on the display. For a moment he wondered if Rodney had wiped the computer before installing it in the dart, but the sight of more dots appearing on the heads up display forced him to focus on his flying.

It didn't take him long to figure out the swarms of dots were other darts, and his close call with the side of one of the hive ships allowed him to sort out where the hive ships were in relation to each other in the mass of data streaming past him. Once he knew that, he turned the dart around, and aimed for the second hive ship's flank. He glanced down at the flight stick as he skimmed the surface of the ship, and saw what had to be the trigger for the dart's weapons.

He pushed the button on the top of the controller with his thumb and smiled when what was clearly a targeting system came online in front of him. He had no idea what would be a vital hit on the hive ship, but that didn't really matter, he knew a dart wasn't going to inflict that much damage regardless of where he hit it. He had another plan in mind for destroying the two hive ships. He opened fire and felt the grim smile on his face when the heads up display showed him where his shots had impacted the ship.

John came around for another pass on his chosen target and spotted a third blip on the HUD as he opened fire. He had no idea what the display was trying to tell him about the object; he wasn't sure if it was another hive or one of the smaller cruisers. Whatever the other ship was, it was too far away for John to worry about at the moment. As bad as his plan had been, Ford had been right about one thing, they needed to stop the hive ships before they had a chance to cull the nearby planet.

Ford.

John grimaced as he fired on the hive ship again. Had Ford managed to evade the Wraith drones chasing them? he wondered. If his plan worked, John knew he'd be sentencing Ford to near-certain death. He shook his head and refused to let himself think about Ford still on board the first hive ship. He could only hope Ford would find another way to escape, and they would see him again one day.

He focused on the HUD and lined up for another pass on the second hive ship.

"Here goes nothing," he muttered, breaking the eerie silence inside the dart.

He made one more strafing run on the hive ship in front of him then blew out a breath when the data on the display showed a new set of dots, smaller than the darts, flying between the two ships, and John realised the two hives had opened fire on each other. What was more, the newcomer also opened fire on one of the hive ships.

Must have been a support cruiser, after all, John thought to himself as he wove through the hundreds of darts reversing course to return to their respective hives. It didn't take long for the smaller ships to start shooting at each other even as the larger hive ships continued to target each other.

"That's more like it," John said to himself as he dodged several darts closing on his position and targeting him.

So far, his plan was working perfectly. Now all he had to do was survive it.

"'Gate, 'gate, Where is the 'gate?" he muttered to himself as he scanned the data stream flowing past him.

He knew the 'gate was on the other side of the planet from where the two hive ships continued to bombard each other and pointed the dart in the direction of the planet. He made sure to steer clear of the mysterious third blip still hanging at the edge of the heads-up display firing at the Wraith ships. He didn't need to escape two hive ships, only to be blown out of the sky by a lucky shot from the interloper. He set a course that would hopefully keep him out of range of the new ship and swerved to his right when a swarm of darts flew past him on their way back to whichever hive ship they belonged.

John recognised the symbol for the 'gate on the HUD at the same time some sort of alert sounded inside the dart. It was the first sound he'd heard from the ship since the canopy had closed over him in the dart bay and he suspected it couldn't be telling him anything good.

"Great, now what?" he said, glancing around the darkened canopy.

He didn't see any of the dots representing darts on his tail, but one of the outlines for the hive ships blinked faster and faster as more of the tiny dots hit its flank. It didn't take a genius to realise the ship was about to blow up, and John pushed the dart to go faster.

The object he'd been aiming for was now front and center on the display and growing larger as John closed on the stargate. He pushed everything else out of his mind as he concentrated on flying the dart. The last time he'd tried this, he'd had Rodney's tablet giving him the information he needed to line up with the center of 'gate. This time, he'd have to literally fly blind and pray he could figure out the right information on the display.

The symbol for the stargate grew on the display in front of him, and just as John was starting to wonder if he were close enough, a blue ring blinked around the edge of the 'gate symbol.

"Please tell me that means what I think it means," John said to the ship as he punched an address into the DHD.

The blue light around the edge of the symbol blinked faster, then winked out as the symbol itself switched from black to green and John aimed for the center of the symbol on the display.

He heard the alarm inside the ship change from a high pitched beeping to a shrill squawk just as he passed through the middle of the target on the HUD. Before John had a chance to worry about what the alarm meant, it stopped, and the display overhead changed again, this time showing John the curvature of a planet instead of the flat horizon of space.

He scanned the HUD and didn't see any of the dots representing Wraith darts. He didn't find anything that would be a hive ship either, and let out the breath he'd been holding.

"Made it," John muttered to himself.

He had no idea what the display was telling him about the terrain below and glanced back-and-forth over the canopy looking for anything he could recognise. After several seconds, he found the symbol for the 'gate on the planet's surface and turned the dart around. He knew the area in front of the 'gate was an open clearing and scanned the console in front of him until he found the control that would release Ronon and Teyla from the containment field.

John nodded to himself when he saw two blips appear on the heads up display in front of the 'gate a few seconds later.

They'd done it, he realised. Against all odds, they had managed to get off the hive ship, hopefully destroying it and the second hive ship in the process, and saving the people on that nameless planet from a culling.

Not a bad day's work, John thought to himself with a grim smile.

John landed the dart a short distance away from the blips and powered down the dart. The canopy disappeared, and John started to climb out of the ship but froze and raised his hands when he saw Ronon standing in front of him, his blaster raised.

"Sheppard," Ronon greeted and lowered the particle weapon.

"You guys all right?" John asked as he jumped down from the ship and walked over to Ronon and Teyla standing near the DHD.

"We are fine," Teyla told him. "Your idea of escaping in the dart worked," she added as she looked around.

John nodded as he joined them. "If things went the way I hoped, those two hive ships blew each other up, too," John said as he looked around. "Figured we didn't want to stick around for that." He didn't mention the third ship. He had no idea if the explosion from two hive ships blowing up would take out the third ship as well.

"Lieutenant Ford?" Teyla asked.

John rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't know," he admitted softly.

"Aiden is a survivor," Teyla told him as she squeezed his hand. "I am certain he found a way to escape."

"Yeah, maybe," John replied, unable to shake the guilty feeling that he had broken his first rule, again, in leaving Ford behind.

"So where are we?" Ronon asked into the silence a few moments later.

"We are on Ymber," Teyla replied. She let go of John's hand and gave him a questioning glance.

"Yep," John said and looked around at the tall trees surrounding the clearing. "At least it's not raining this time."

Teyla smiled as she took a few steps away from the DHD and studied the nearby trees.

"Why didn't we go back to Atlantis?" Ronon asked.

John turned back at the dart. "Wasn't sure that would fit in the gateroom."

Ronon glanced at the ship and shrugged. "Makes sense, I guess."

"It shouldn't be too hard for Elizabeth to convince Colonel Caldwell to come back here. The dart should fit in the _Daedalus'_ launch bay. Rodney and the science teams will have a field day figuring out how it works."

John smiled to himself at the thought of how excited Rodney would be when he laid eyes on the dart. Even after months of study, the science teams hadn't learnt much from the dart he'd shot down on Thenora. He knew he was volunteering himself for hours of 'helping' with Rodney's research, but after months of awkwardness between them, John found he didn't mind the idea.

"Speaking of Rodney," Teyla said with a glance at John. "We have been gone for several days, he must be worried about us. We should return to Aiden's basecamp."

Ronon walked over to the DHD. "What's the address for the planet where McKay is?" he asked and looked over at John.

John shook his head. "We need to go to Atlantis first," he replied. "We've been gone for weeks. Elizabeth needs to know we're all right."

Ronon looked up from the DHD with a frown.

"Colonel? What about Rodney?" Teyla asked.

John walked over to the DHD and started to dial the address for Atlantis. "That's the other reason we need to go to the city first. Everyone on that planet is using the Wraith enzyme. What are they going to do when we show up without Ford or any of his people?"

Teyla pursed her lips.

"They're going to think we double-crossed Ford," Ronon said and stepped over to one side of the stargate.

John nodded. "Exactly. Somehow I doubt they are going to listen to us or be happy just to hand Rodney over and let us go on our merry way once they find out what happened."

Teyla nodded. "You may be right."

John finished dialling and watched the wormhole form. "We'll go home, let Elizabeth know we're all right, get Lorne and Thompson, and then go get Rodney."

Ronon took one last look around the clearing and stepped toward the 'gate. "Let's go," he said.

John walked into the gateroom moments later and waved off the guards standing on either side of the 'gate.

"Sorry we're late," he said to Elizabeth as she hurried down the stairs from the control room and stood in front of him.

John watched as Elizabeth gave each of them a quick once over and a relieved smile. "Colonel Sheppard, Ronon, Teyla. It's good to see you."

John stared at Weir for a moment, wondering what was going on. They'd been missing in action for at least a couple of weeks, sure, but that didn't explain Elizabeth's reaction on seeing them.

"I know we were gone longer than we planned," John said with a glance at Ronon and Teyla standing one either side of him, "but that tip we got about the ZPM didn't really work out."

"I know," Elizabeth said and led the way up the stairs and into her office.

"You know?" John asked. "How could you possibly know?" he asked as Elizabeth walked behind her desk and sat down. John and Teyla sat in the chairs in front of the desk while Ronon stood near the door.

"Rodney came back a few days ago -" Elizabeth started to say.

"He did?" John interrupted, feeling equal parts pride and relief that Rodney had managed to escape Ford's men on his own.

Elizabeth nodded, and John saw her expression change again. He didn't understand the worried crease across her forehead and wondered what Elizabeth wasn't saying.

"Yes. He told us about Lieutenant Ford and his plan to use all of you to help him destroy a hive ship, and that you had been dosed with the Wraith enzyme." She looked over at John. "The _Daedalus_ was there when the two hive ships blew up."

John remembered the strange blip on the heads up display. "So that's what that was," he muttered under his breath.

"Colonel?" Elizabeth asked.

John shook his head. "The heads up display in the dart I stole didn't give me much information. At the time, I thought it was another hive ship or maybe a Wraith cruiser assisting one or the other hives in the battle."

Teyla sat forward in her chair. "Was Rodney onboard the _Daedalus_?"

John felt a jolt in his stomach as Elizabeth nodded. That explained the strange expression on her face when they came through the 'gate, John realised. Caldwell had probably reported the destruction of the hive ships to Weir.

And Rodney had watched the whole thing.

John stood from his chair with a grimace.

"We need to contact the _Daedalus_ ," he said with a glance from Elizabeth to the control room behind him.

Elizabeth sighed and shook her head. "We can't."

John shook his head and paced a few steps away from his chair. "Elizabeth -"

"I know, John. But they are already on their way back. There's no way to communicate with the _Daedalus_ while they are in hyperspace flight, you know that."

"How long until they get back here?" John asked and crossed his arms over his chest.

Elizabeth clasped her hands in front of her on the desk. "According to the message Colonel Caldwell sent before they started for Atlantis, they should arrive around 1900 hours."

John glanced at his watch. Two hours. Two hours where Rodney would think his entire team was dead. That John was dead.

"In the meantime, you all need to head to the infirmary," Elizabeth said. "Carson needs to make sure there won't be any side effects from the enzyme Ford gave all of you."

John caught her worried glance at the 'gate but wasn't sure what had her so concerned. Ronon and Teyla both seemed fine. Now. Before John could ask what was wrong, she tapped her earpiece.

"This is Weir," Elizabeth said. She listened for a moment, then glanced at John, Ronon, and Teyla. "Yes, they are in my office. I'm sending them over to you now."

She tapped the radio again and said, "Word travels fast it seems. That was Carson. He's expecting all of you."

"Elizabeth -" John started to say, as Elizabeth held up a hand.

"Go. Let Carson check you all out. I'll have Chuck radio the _Daedalus_ as soon as he can. It's the best we can do."

John pursed his lips but motioned Teyla out of the office ahead of him as Ronon followed him.

"Colonel," Carson said with a nod as John walked into the infirmary a few minutes later. "You lot have had us all a bit worried these last few weeks." He gave Ronon and Teyla a quick smile before he led them to the far corner of the room where Sharon and Doctor Cortes waited.

"Blood samples from all three of them, if you please," Carson said as he pointed to the scrubs waiting on two of the beds. "Once the initial exams are done, Ronon and Teyla can clean up and get changed."

"Changed?" Ronon asked.

Carson gave him a penetrating look. "I already know that Lieutenant Ford dosed both you and Teyla with the enzyme," he said. "I want to keep both of you here at least overnight, just to be safe while we run some tests."

He turned to John and added, "As for you, Colonel -"

"Ford didn't give any of the enzyme to me," John tried to explain.

Carson shook his head. "You don't know that for certain." When John started to interrupt, Carson held up a hand and continued, "However, if your initial blood work is clean, I'll release you."

"How long for the blood tests?" John asked as he sat on the edge of another bed.

Carson stepped back as Sharon came over with a tray of supplies and took a blood sample.

"I've been working on a new way to detect the enzyme," Carson said as Sharon finished and taped a cotton ball over the puncture in John's arm. "The initial test we can do in an hour or two. That will at least tell us if there is any of the enzyme present in your system. If there is," he glanced at Teyla and Ronon, "I have a few other tests we can run to check how much of the enzyme is there and how long it will take to break down completely."

Sharon finished taking samples from Ronon and Teyla and left. Carson nodded to Doctor Cortes. "If you would go ahead with the initial exams," he said." I'll get started on the tests."

"Certainly, Doctor Beckett," Doctor Cortes said.

An hour later, their physical exams complete, John leant against the wall between Ronon and Teyla's beds, checking his watch every few minutes. He felt better after a shower and change of clothes, now it was a matter of waiting for Carson to return with their test results. Teyla and Ronon each sat on one of the infirmary beds dressed in clean scrubs. Other than some scrapes and bruises, physically they were all fine, and John's patience was wearing thin waiting for the lab work.

"Colonel?" Teyla asked as John glanced at his watch for the third time and then at the door to the medical lab.

The door to the infirmary opened, and Elizabeth walked in and over to their corner. "Chuck is tracking the _Daedalus_ on the long-range sensors,'' she said as she stopped at the end of Ronon's bed. "They should be here in another half hour or so."

"Was he able to make radio contact?" John asked.

Elizabeth shook her head. "Unfortunately, no."

John pinched the bridge of his nose then glanced toward the medical lab as the door opened, and Carson walked over with a tablet computer in his hand.

"Well?" John asked.

"You were right," Carson said as he stopped at the end of Teyla's bed. "There are no residual traces of the enzyme in your system, so I think Lieutenant Ford was telling you the truth."

"He wanted a witness," John replied. He crossed his arms over his chest and looked down at his feet.

He'd been shocked when Ford had told him only Rodney, Ronon, and Teyla had been dosed, and a part of him had even wondered if Ford had done it for another reason besides acting as an impartial observer. If anyone knew how John felt about Rodney and the others, it would be Ford. It was a perfect way to torture him and keep him in his place at the same time.

"John?" Elizabeth asked, concern lacing her tone.

John looked over at her. "Ford. He wanted someone to act as a witness for his little experiment." He glanced at Ronon and Teyla.

"There was nothing you could have done," Teyla told him.

John only grunted in reply.

"As for you two," Carson said a moment later, and turned to Teyla and Ronon, "there are still signs of the enzyme in your blood work. We'll use those numbers as a baseline and take another sample in a few hours. That should tell us how long it will take for the enzyme to clear your bodies completely. Until then, I want to keep both of you here."

Ronon looked around the infirmary. "How long?"

"Hopefully, no more than a day or two," Carson told him. "How are you feeling?"

"I feel fine," Ronon replied.

Carson gave him a measured look, and John knew they were thinking the same thing. Ronon could be beaten, bloody, and half-dead, but he would still say he was fine to avoid a stay in the infirmary.

"I feel much more like myself as well," Teyla added.

John caught the strange look Carson and Elizabeth exchanged and once again wondered what he had missed while on Ford's little mission.

"Let's just have a quick look, and then I'll see about finding the pair of you something to eat," Carson said.

Carson finished checking Teyla's vitals and was examining Ronon when Elizabeth tapped her earpiece.

"This is Weir," John heard her say.

She nodded, glanced at John, and said, "Understood. Have them meet us down here. Weir out."

"The _Daedalus_?" John asked.

Elizabeth nodded. "They are docking as we speak."

John grimaced and nodded. So much for meeting Rodney when he landed, he thought to himself.

"All right, then, up you get," Carson said a few minutes later and helped Ronon sit up.

John started to say something to Carson but stopped when he heard a new voice behind him.

"Why aren't you dead?" Rodney asked.

John smiled to himself as he turned around. Trust Rodney to get straight to the point.

"Nice to see you too, Rodney," he replied. He hoped the sarcastic response would reassure McKay everything was fine, but when John turned around, he saw the stunned look on Rodney's pale face, not to mention the thin sheen of sweat on his forehead, and changed his mind.

"No, no, you know what I mean. Why aren't you … dead?" Rodney said, absently rubbing his left hand as he glanced at Ronon and Teyla.

John studied him for a moment and frowned when he noticed the minute shaking in Rodney's hands and the way he didn't look any of them in the eye.

What was going on? John wondered even as he explained how they had escaped the hive ship and convinced the two hives to destroy each other. Rodney's reaction was from more than just the shock of finding out John was still alive.

"And, umm, where is Ford?" Rodney asked, looking around the infirmary.

Teyla glanced at Rodney then over at John. "He was on board the hive ship when it was destroyed," she said softly.

John shook his head. "He was last seen on the hive ship," he replied, still unwilling to accept that he'd failed once again to save a member of his team.

Rodney rubbed his left hand and gave John a sideways glance. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You know Ford. I wouldn't be surprised if we run into him again."

Rodney muttered something under his breath and wrapped his arms around his chest. He gave each of them one last glance, then took a step back as Caldwell moved to the end of Ronon's bed.

"Colonel Sheppard, good work with the hive ships," Caldwell said.

"Thank you, sir," John replied. He gave Caldwell a thin smile and a nod.

Caldwell studied him for a moment, then turned to Elizabeth. "Doctor Weir, Hermiod wants to run a few checks on the drive system before we head back to Earth. I assume it won't be an issue if we stay a few more days?"

"That shouldn't be a problem, Colonel," Elizabeth replied.

John turned to mention the trip to Ymber to pick up the dart when he saw Rodney give him a furtive glance before he slipped out of the infirmary.

What the hell? John wondered as he watched the infirmary door whisper closed. He could understand that the shock of seeing them all alive after believing they were dead would throw Rodney for a bit of a loop, but this was more than mere surprise that John had once again seemingly come back from the dead.

He watched as Elizabeth and Caldwell left the infirmary, discussing the details for housing the _Daedalus_ crew while Hermiod ran diagnostics, then turned back Teyla and Ronon as Carson spoke.

"I'll have trays sent over from the mess hall," Carson said to Teyla and Ronon. "And you both need rest. Residual effects from the Wraith enzyme aside, you both have had a trying few days with the withdrawal, I'm sure."

John caught the worried expression on Carson's face as he looked around the room.

"Where did Rodney get to?" he asked.

"He left a few minutes ago," Teyla replied.

"Looked like he needed sleep," Ronon added.

"He needs more than that," Carson said, his expression full of concern. He turned to John and added, "He needs to be where I can keep an eye on him."

"Why?" John asked, his worry notching up at Carson's statement.

Carson shook his head as he glanced around the room. "Come with me."

"Colonel?" Teyla asked, and John saw his worry mirrored in her expression.

"I'll let you know," he said with a glance at her and then Ronon as he followed Beckett back to his office.

"Carson? What's going on? Was Rodney injured somehow when he escaped?" John asked. Even without the enzyme, the men Ford left holding McKay hostage would have been formidable. With the enzyme …

Carson grimaced as he sat in the chair behind his desk. "Didn't anyone tell you how Rodney managed to escape and return to the city?"

John stood with his back against the closed office door, and his arms crossed over his chest. "I just assumed he waited for the right time and made a run for the 'gate."

Carson rubbed his forehead. "Not exactly."

John dropped his arms and walked over to Beckett's desk. "Okay, so what, exactly, did he do?"

Carson sighed and tapped on the keyboard for his computer. "It might be better to show you," he replied and turned the laptop around so John could see the screen.

John grasped the back of the chair in front of the desk as the video from the security feed in the gateroom started to play. He watched as Rodney came through the 'gate, one finger raised, already talking even as he walked through the event horizon. There was no audio, but John watched in mounting horror as he noted Rodney was sweating and shaking and the fact he never stopped moving, pacing in circles around Elizabeth, clearly agitated as he spoke.

When Rodney dropped to the floor a few seconds later, John sank into the chair. He watched as Elizabeth said something to the two Marines standing behind her and dropped his head into his hands as the two men rushed forward, picked Rodney up, and ran out of frame.

Carson paused the video and John sat with his arms braced on his knees, trying to digest what he had just watched.

"What …" He let the question hang as he stared at Carson.

"He took a massive dose of the enzyme," Carson said softly, and John noted the underlying distress lacing Carson's tone. "Almost as much as Aiden received during the siege."

John sank back in the chair, stunned. Of all the ways McKay could have escaped, injecting himself with more of the enzyme never even occurred to him.

 _"When they up the dosage, the side effects will be very real and very unpredictable,"_ he remembered Rodney telling him on the way back from examining the DHD on Ford's planet.

"Rodney, what the hell were you thinking?" John whispered at the floor.

"From what Elizabeth could get from him in the gateroom, Rodney had become concerned when you three didn't return," Carson said in a low voice. "It seems he thought taking the enzyme was the only way to overpower the men preventing him from leaving so he could rescue you."

John scrubbed his hands over his face, remembering Ford lying on the floor in their cell as the enzyme wore off. "How bad was the withdrawal?"

Carson closed the computer and sat back in his chair. "Bad," he replied. "We nearly lost him."

John pushed himself out of the chair and paced near the door.

"That's why he needs to be back in the infirmary," Carson explained.

John looked up with a puzzled frown. "I thought he was fine. You let him leave on the _Daedalus_ to find us."

"He survived the initial withdrawal, yes, but that's only the first step in his recovery," Carson replied. "From the tests I was able to run on Lieutenant Ford after he was exposed, it appears the enzyme can store itself in various cells within the human body.

"Even days later, there is still a significant amount of the enzyme in Rodney's body, waiting for the right stimulus to flood his system again. The odds of Rodney having some kind of secondary reaction were high before everything that happened with those hive ships. With all of the emotional turmoil of thinking you lot were all dead, only to then find out you're alive …"

Carson shook his head. "You need to find him, John."

John nodded and opened the office door. "I have a few ideas on where he's likely to be. I'll get him back here."

"Good."

"What about Teyla and Ronon?" John asked. "Do we need to worry about this secondary reaction with them too?"

Carson shook his head. "Hopefully, not. Even though they were on the enzyme for a couple of weeks, the overall dosage was never as high as the one Rodney gave himself in one go. Barring any physical side effects, Ronon and Teyla should be fine in a day or so, once the enzyme has broken down completely."

John watched Carson glance out the door with a worried frown.

"I'll find him," John promised and left the office.

He walked back over to the corner where he'd left Ronon and Teyla and found both of them standing at the end of Ronon's bed. Teyla's concern was easy to read in her expression and the way she paced between the two beds. Ronon wasn't nearly as obvious, but John could tell from the way he stood with his hands clenched into fists that he was worried, too.

"Colonel? What did Doctor Beckett say?" Teyla asked as John stopped in front of them.

"It turns out you were right," John said to Teyla. "Rodney was worried when we didn't come back."

"He did something. Didn't he." Ronon said, and John could tell it was a statement more than a question.

John sighed and nodded. "He dosed himself with Wraith enzyme."

Teyla hissed in a breath and John thought he heard a low growl from Ronon.

"He took more of the enzyme? On purpose?" Teyla asked.

John nodded and rubbed the back of his neck.

"How bad?" Ronon asked.

John dropped his arm and glanced at the infirmary exit. "Bad," he said shortly. He glanced at Teyla and added, "Almost as much as Ford when that Wraith attacked him."

Teyla stepped back and leant against the nearest bed, a stricken expression on her face.

John silently agreed. "According to what Carson just told me, Rodney thought it was the only way he could overpower Ford's men so he could find us. Now Carson is worried something could happen to him. A secondary reaction, he called it." He glanced at his watch. "I need to get moving," he added and took a step toward the exit.

"We will help," Teyla said as she started to follow him, but John shook his head.

"You heard Beckett. Until your blood work clears, you both need to stay here." John waited until Teyla sat back on her bed, and Ronon gave him a reluctant nod. "Don't worry. I'll find him," he said and left the infirmary.

John headed for the nearest transporter and paused once he was inside. He knew of several places Rodney could go, his quarters, the mess hall, his lab. Then there was the pier or any number of balconies he frequented when he wanted to think or more importantly, be alone.

John remembered the pallor and the way Rodney was sweating when he left the infirmary. "If anyone had seen him looking like that, they would have reported it," John said as he studied the map on the wall in front of him. "So, he's going to be by himself. That narrows the possibilities down to about two."

John's hand wavered over two locations on the map. "Quarters or lab?" he asked himself.

He thought back to Rodney pacing back-and-forth in Ford's hideout as the enzyme first took effect.

"He won't be able to settle enough to rest," John muttered and touched the section of the map for the science labs.

John stepped out of the transporter a moment later, turned the corner for Rodney's lab, and stopped short when he saw three men blocking the hallway as they struggled with a large crate that had fallen off a platform trolley.

"Radek?' John asked one of the men. "What's going on?"

"Colonel Sheppard!" Radek replied with a smile. "We thought …" He waved the thought away and continued. "That's not important as obviously you are here."

"Yep," John replied, with a thin smile.

After more than a year hanging around Rodney, John was used to the non-sequiturs when dealing with McKay's scientists. He watched the other two men struggle to get the crate back on the platform truck beside them. John stepped forward, took one end of the crate and hefted it onto the trolley.

"Thanks," one of the men said once the crate was situated.

John rubbed his hands together and watched as the men pushed the trolley around the far corner, then turned back to Zelenka.

"What the hell was in that crate?" John asked semi-rhetorically. "Must have weighed a ton."

"A winch with a thousand-foot steel cable for a science mission to M8R-159," Radek replied.

"Ahh," John said and reached for the door sensor for Rodney's lab.

"He's not in there," Radek said. "I have not seen him since he left on the _Daedalus_ this morning."

John grimaced. "Damn," he muttered under his breath as he stepped away from the door. "So much for the easy answer."

"Colonel? Is everything all right?" Radek asked as John headed back to the transporter.

John turned around. "I hope so," he replied with a last wave at Zelenka as he touched the sensor for the transporter.

"Maybe he did go back to his room," John said to himself once he was back inside the transporter, and tapped the section of the map for their quarters.

He was in the hallway leading back to Rodney's room when he heard someone behind him.

"Colonel Sheppard!" a voice called.

John turned around and saw Lorne walking toward him, a huge smile on his face.

"It's good to see you, sir," Lorne said as he stopped in front of John with his hands behind his back. "After we saw the two hive ships go up we thought the worst."

"So I heard," John said. "You were there, too?" He glanced at his watch and started walking again.

"Umm, yes, sir," Lorne replied as he fell into step beside him. "Doctor McKay had the idea of using the sensors in one of the puddle jumpers to try and locate you and the others in the hive ship using your radios." Lorne paused and glanced at John. "After everything that happened when he returned a few days ago …" Lorne glanced over at John.

"I heard," John said in reply to Lorne's cautious look.

"Right. Well, after everything with the enzyme, Doctor Weir didn't want McKay flying the jumper, so I volunteered to go along as his pilot."

John smiled. Rodney and Lorne hadn't made the best impression on each other when they'd first met on P3M-736 while searching for Ford. He wondered if Rodney knew how much Lorne's opinion of him had changed in the last few months.

"Thanks, Major," John said as he turned down the hallway that led to Rodney's room.

"No problem, sir," Lorne replied, and slowed to a stop. "Umm, sir?" Lorne said and waited for John to turn around. "There's, umm, there's something else you should probably know about."

"Oh?"

"Umm, yes, sir," Lorne replied.

_Evan stared at the floating debris, not bothering to hide the look of disbelief on his face. He hadn't known Sheppard for that long, but in the months since his arrival at Atlantis, Evan had grown to respect him. More than that, he had considered Sheppard a friend._

_"Did any darts survive?" Caldwell asked Kleinman sitting at the weapons station._

_Evan glanced back in time to see Kleinman shake his head. "Negative, sir."_

_So close, Evan thought to himself as he traded a look with Caldwell then peered out at the floating debris in front of them. They'd been so close to rescuing Sheppard and the others._

_He heard a sound, something between a whimper and a groan, coming from the other side of Caldwell, looked over, and saw Doctor McKay staring out the window with a lost expression on his face._

_Evan grimaced and looked down at his shoes. He knew what it felt like to lose a member of his team; he'd lost two of them on a recent mission to save Sheppard's life after he was infected with Beckett's retrovirus. McKay had just lost his entire team, and from what Evan understood from the base gossip, he and Sheppard had considered each other family as well._

_"Major," Caldwell said in a low voice with a glance at McKay still staring at the debris field._

_Evan nodded and walked over to McKay. He stood behind and slightly to McKay's right as Caldwell turned back to Kleinman._

_"Ready forward rail guns," Caldwell ordered._

_"Yes, sir," Kleinman replied. "Forward guns, primed and ready, sir."_

_"What?" McKay asked, looking around. "What are you doing?"_

_"Paying respects, Doc," Evan replied in a low voice and rested a hand on McKay's shoulder._

_Caldwell glanced at McKay, then nodded to Kleinman. "Proceed."_

_Everyone on the bridge stood at attention, and a few seconds later, the forward guns fired. Evan heard another whimper/groan from McKay as he watched the streaks of energy fly over the debris field. A moment later, a second volley was fired, then a third._

_As the third volley faded into the distance, McKay stepped forward until he stood against the bridge windows, staring out at the debris field as the men and women around him went back to their duties._

_Before Evan could do or say anything, McKay wrapped his arms around his middle and left the bridge without a backward glance._

_"Colonel?" Evan asked as he watched McKay disappear down the hall._

_Caldwell looked up from the report in his hand and nodded. "Stay with him, Major. I'll radio Atlantis and let them know what's happened."_

_"Yes, sir," Evan replied and followed McKay off the bridge._

_McKay had already disappeared by the time Evan reached the corridor outside the bridge. As he walked down the hall listing off the places McKay could have gone in his head, a part of him wondered what he would do once he found McKay._

_Would he even want company? Evan wondered. Maybe it was better to leave him alone and let him deal with the loss his own way. He stopped and leant against the bulkhead._

_"What would Sheppard do?" he asked himself then shook his head. What Sheppard would do didn't matter now, he realised. He wasn't John Sheppard. But he owed Sheppard. He owed it to his commanding officer to try and help the sole surviving member of his team deal with the grief and start to move on. The problem was, he had no idea how to talk to McKay._

_He remembered their first meeting on P3M-736 and shook his head. At the time, all he knew about McKay was that he was supposed to be brilliant, but all Evan saw was a man who appeared to be afraid of everything, including a little sunlight as they searched for Lieutenant Ford. Then a couple of months later, he had discovered McKay hiking, alone, on a bum leg on a planet where the natives wanted to kill all of them, determined to find his two missing teammates. After that mission, Evan had re-evaluated his initial reaction to McKay and admitted he had formed a grudging respect for him. He finally understood that Sheppard did more than merely put up with McKay for the sake of his intelligence._

_He was outside the mess hall when he saw movement inside the room from the corner of his eye. Evan stepped into the room, looked around, and found McKay huddled at a table on the far side of the room facing the large exterior window._

_Evan watched him for a few moments, still at a loss as to what to do to help, when he spotted the coffee carafes._

_"As good an excuse as anything," he said to himself as he poured two cups of coffee and walked over to the corner of the room._

_He stopped next to McKay's table and frowned when he saw McKay's pale face and the thin sheen of sweat on his brow. Evan had reviewed the security footage of McKay's return to Atlantis, and he'd seen him in the infirmary when he had assigned a Marine detail to McKay in case he broke free of the restraints. Sitting with his back wedged into the corner between the chair and the wall, McKay looked almost as bad now as he had after his return to Atlantis a few days ago._

_Shock? Evan asked himself, or something else? He had no idea how the enzyme worked to know if he needed to worry about side effects._

_He glanced down at the cups in his hands and wondered if he should forgo the coffee and take McKay down to the infirmary instead._

_"I really hate it when people hover," McKay muttered, never taking his eyes off the view out the window._

_Evan smiled to himself as he set one of the cups in front of McKay then sat down beside him._

_"Was there something you wanted, Major?" McKay asked, ignoring the cup in front of him as he wrapped his arms around his middle and continued to stare out the window._

_Evan shook his head as he studied the closed-off body language. "Nope," Evan finally replied. "Just thought you'd want some company."_

_McKay shrugged, and Evan took that as permission to stay. He sat, sipping his coffee, saying nothing as he watched McKay until he heard his name over the radio._

_"Major Lorne," Caldwell said._

_Evan glanced at McKay as he stood. "I'll be right back," he said and stepped away from the table. He tapped his earpiece and replied, "Lorne, here."_

_"We've made the initial report to Atlantis on what happened," Caldwell told him. "We'll be heading back to the city in a few minutes, Major. If there's anything Doctor McKay wants to do or say, now's the time."_

_"Copy that, sir. I'll let him know."_

_"Understood. Caldwell out."_

_Evan tapped off the radio and walked back to the table. "Doc?" he said in a low voice and sat back in his chair. "We're about to head back. If there's something you want to …"_

_For the first time since Evan entered the room, McKay looked at him, and Evan was shocked at what he saw. Gone was the arrogance, and the towering ego; all that was left was a man lost in a profound sense of grief._

_"It was all a mistake," McKay muttered. "I never should have …" He glanced at Evan and shook his head._

_"Doc?" Evan asked when it was clear McKay wasn't going to finish. "What shouldn't you have done?"_

_"Ronon. Teyla. Sh-Sheppard," McKay replied and turned back to the window. "Spent most of my life, not caring about anyone. Until I came here. Until J-John …"_

_McKay pushed himself to his feet, and Evan watched as the grief was replaced with a mask of indifference. "I won't make that mistake again," McKay said. "People will always disappoint you in the end, Major. You're always left to deal with the problems alone."_

_He took one last look out the window then left the room just as the hyperspace streaks appeared outside and the_ Daedalus _began the trip back to Atlantis._

"Damn," John muttered under his breath. He rubbed a hand over his face and nodded at Lorne. "Thank you, Major."

"Sir?"

"For trying to help him."

"Umm, yes, sir," Lorne replied.

John took a deep breath and glanced at his watch. Between what Carson had said in the infirmary and what Lorne just told him about Rodney's reaction after the hive ships were destroyed, John suspected he didn't have much time left to find Rodney before whatever secondary reaction Beckett was worried about kicked in.

"I don't suppose you've seen Rodney recently?"

Lorne shook his head. "I left to take the jumper back to the bay as the _Daedalus_ was coming in to land. I didn't even know you were all alive until Chuck said something as I was docking the jumper in the bay. I was just on my way to find you when I ran into you, sir. Is there something wrong? Do you want some help looking for him?"

"No, I'll find him," John said. "Go on, get some rest."

"Yes, sir," Lorne replied, and John watched as he walked back up the hall toward the transporter.

John walked toward Rodney's quarters, stopped outside the door, and softly knocked.

"Rodney?" John called through the door. "You in there, buddy?" He waited a few seconds, and when he didn't get an answer, he tapped the sensor and stepped into the room.

The empty room.

"Damn it, Rodney, where are you?" John muttered as he checked the small bathroom then walked back into the main room and looked around. He saw Rodney's uniform jacket on the floor and stooped to pick it up. "So, you were here," he muttered as he draped the coat over the back of the desk chair. "Where did you go?" he asked.

He glanced around the room again and grimaced when the itch from the link crawled up the back of his skull. "No, no, no," he muttered as he hurried out of Rodney's room.

He looked up and down the hall, trying to think where else Rodney could be when he spotted the door to the balcony at the end of the hall was cracked open. John pushed the door open and shivered when the cold air outside slapped him in the face. He zipped up his jacket as he stepped outside and looked around in the dim light. He didn't see Rodney right away, but he thought he heard something at the other end of the balcony. John mentally turned up the lights and froze when he spotted Rodney, shivering in just his shirt-sleeves, pacing back-and-forth.

He could see Rodney was sweating even in the cold night air and John wasn't sure if Rodney was shaking due to the fact he was chilled or if this was another symptom of the enzyme overdose.

"Rodney?" he called, and tried to sound calm.

Rodney's head jerked up as John spoke. "Don't," he said and held up a shaky finger. "Don't come any closer." He backed up and wedged himself in the corner of the balcony.


	2. Chapter 2

Rodney ignored Lorne as he glared at the window and watched the _Daedalus_ make the jump into hyperspace, leaving the debris from the hive ships, leaving his team, behind. He left the mess hall, stormed down the hall and around the corner, and stopped short when he saw a group of _Daedalus_ crew members at the other end of the corridor walking toward him. He ducked down another hallway before they could say anything to him. He didn't want their sympathy, sincere or not.

"This is all a bad dream, and you're going to wake up any time now," Rodney muttered to himself as he turned down one hallway, then another, and several minutes later, found himself outside one of the _Daedalus'_ launch bays. 

On a normal day, he would have ignored the bays, choosing instead to spend any free time he had on the engineering deck. But this wasn't a normal day. And since it was supposed to be a short mission, he hadn't been assigned any sort of quarters where he could retreat. 

With the ship in faster-than-light flight, there was no reason for anyone to be in the bay, and for the moment, that suited his needs more than puttering with one engineering problem or another. Rodney walked into the bay and let the door whisper shut behind him, savoring the silence as well as the solitude.

He ignored the computers and equipment and instead, paced up and down the rows of F302s. He caught himself smiling a bit as he remembered the last time he'd been in the bay and his unexpected inclusion in Sheppard's space battle with a rogue fighter. The smile morphed into a whimper as the loss crashed down on him again. 

After everything he had done, the near-fatal overdose of enzyme, fighting off Ford's guards, surviving the withdrawal, it hadn't been enough. When the chips were down, when his team had needed him the most, he had failed them. 

Rodney stopped at the end of the room near the launch bay doors and ducked his head. If he had done a better job convincing the men guarding him on Ford's planet, he would have been back with plenty of time to spare. Failing that, if he hadn't slept for almost two days in the infirmary after taking the enzyme, he could have talked to Elizabeth earlier, which again would have sent the _Daedalus_ after his team before it was too late. 

Maybe even in time to rescue them from the one hive ship before the second one arrived, Rodney thought bitterly to himself. 

Rodney wandered back through the bay and sank to the floor in an out-of-the-way corner. There was no crying, no wailing, but he felt the silent tears running down his face as he stared at the ships parked in their neat rows, lost in his grief. 

While he and Ronon had never had the closest of relationships, Dex was a reassuring presence Rodney had learnt to count on during missions in the last few months. And he hadn't forgotten that Ronon had come back to Earth to help Sheppard find him after Vance had kidnapped him, or that Dex had given Woolsey and the IOA committee a piece of his mind when they wanted to reassign him to Earth. 

He crossed his arms over his chest and leant his head against the bulkhead behind him when he realised there would be no more lessons with Teyla patiently teaching him how to defend himself. He swiped at the tears running down his face. He'd never get the chance to tell her how he had put her patient training to good use against Ford's men. 

What hurt the most, however, was knowing he'd never see Sheppard again. No more late-night sessions with the Ancient computer game. John wouldn't be wandering into his lab to sit and chat, and take Rodney's mind off whatever problem he was dealing with at the time. 

Rodney pulled his legs up to his chest and rested his forehead on his knees. No more team breakfasts, or good-natured bickering while exploring a planet. No more cups of coffee appearing just when he needed to talk to someone. 

He wanted to be angry. At himself for not doing enough to prevent what happened. At Sheppard for going and doing the one thing Rodney feared more than his own death. Instead, the attempt fell short, and he swallowed the stab of anguish from the loss of what amounted to his entire family. 

He thought of Markham's team before the siege, standing at attention in the gateroom during Markham's funeral. He remembered Thompson and Daley sitting at a table in the mess hall after the Wraith had bought his bluff and left the city, mourning for their lost teammate. The difference was, they had at least had each other. Ronon. Teyla. John. There was no one left except him. 

"What happened to you?" Rodney asked himself. "You didn't use to be like this." He wiped his face with his jacket sleeve. "This is what happens when you let yourself care," he muttered, absently rubbing his left hand. "Always knew it was a mistake." 

He sat in the bay, staring at the precise rows of ships, lost in thought.

What happened next? he wondered. Would Elizabeth just assign him to a new team? If this is what it felt like, he wasn't sure he wanted any more team relationships. 

"Better to stay in the lab," he decided. 

He nodded to himself and had just about convinced himself the idea had merit when he realised the problem with that. If he stayed in his lab, there would be no chance at making the next great scientific discovery. 

"Consultant," Rodney muttered, "best of both worlds. Go off-world to investigate interesting finds, but no need to get attached to more people in the process." He nodded to himself, pleased he'd found a solution. 

Rodney jerked his head up a few moments later and stared at the launch bay door. What if Elizabeth decided to send him back to Earth? In his mind, that would be worse than staying in the city even with all of the constant reminders of what he'd lost. 

Rodney shook his head and scrubbed a hand over his face. He was still considering how to make his argument to Elizabeth as to why he should stay in Atlantis, when a new thought occurred to him, something worse than coping with more people or getting sent back to Earth. 

"The link," he said to himself. "What happens now that Sheppard went and got himself blown up?" he muttered. "What does that mean for you?" 

Yana had warned them what could happen if one of them died. He'd thought he was going crazy after everything with Sheppard and the retrovirus. Carson and John had told him at the time it had mostly been his panic feeding his reactions. Now he was in for the real thing, he realised. Staying in Atlantis. Going back to Earth. It wouldn't matter where he ended up if the loss of the link drove him crazy anyway.

Rodney stared out into the bay as one worst-case scenario after another played out in his head. He was only brought out of his spiralling thoughts when he was paged over the radio. 

"Bridge to Doctor McKay." 

Rodney shook himself out of his reverie, wiped his face, and took several deep breaths before he tapped his earpiece.

"Umm, McKay," he replied and winced at how brittle his voice sounded. 

"We'll be dropping out of hyperspace in a few minutes, sir," the unknown female voice told him. "Colonel Caldwell needs to know if you plan to land with us or return to the city in the jumper with Major Lorne." 

Rodney pulled himself to his feet and cleared his throat. "Oh, umm. With you, I guess," he replied, and was relieved he sounded more like himself. 

"Copy that, sir. We will be landing in another thirty minutes." 

Rodney tapped off his radio and made his way back past the ships to the launch bay exit. He had no idea what he would say to Elizabeth about the loss of his team when he saw her. And then he would need to go to the mainland and tell the Athosians he'd failed to save Teyla. Rodney knew John hadn't spoken to either his father or brother in years, but resolved himself to making at least a short trip back to Earth and informing them as well. 

Was there someone Ronon would want him to speak to? he wondered. Outside of the team and Beckett, Rodney wasn't sure how or really with whom Ronon spent his off-duty time. 

Several _Daedalus_ crew members stood to one side or the other of the hallway leading back to the bridge and gave him sympathetic glances as he walked by. Rodney hurried past all of them, refusing to look at anyone and hunching his shoulders at the unwanted attention. 

"It's only going to be worse once you get home," he reminded himself. Maybe he could find a cot to sleep on and never leave his lab. The backache might be worth the price of not having to deal with the looks or people wanting to touch and console him. 

Rodney was still working on a way to include food delivery in Zelenka's job description when he walked onto the bridge in time to hear the woman sitting at the pilot's console say, "Major Lorne, you are cleared to leave the bay." 

"Copy that," Lorne replied over the open channel.

A few seconds later, Rodney saw the tiny shuttle curve away from the _Daedalus_ as it flew toward the dot floating on the ocean in the distance. 

"Doctor," Caldwell greeted as Rodney stopped near the sensor screen next to the _Daedalus'_ pilot. 

Rodney noticed Caldwell watching him and forced himself to stand up straight. He tried crossing his arms over his chest, thought that made him look too defensive, and settled for dropping his hands down to his sides. 

"We sent Atlantis a transmission before we made the hyperspace jump," Caldwell told him. "Doctor Weir knows what happened, but I need to give her a detailed report on the loss of her people." 

Rodney gripped his left hand with his right behind his back, tried to ignore the strange pins-and-needles pain in his left hand, and jutted his chin out. "I should be there as well, Colonel." 

"I don't think --" 

"They were my team, Colonel," Rodney told him, not caring how harsh he sounded, and swallowed. "I owe it to them."

"As you wish," Caldwell agreed with a frown and turned to the woman in the pilot's chair next to Rodney. "Captain Cooper, take us in." 

"Yes, sir," Cooper replied. 

Rodney watched as Cooper brought the _Daedalus_ in to land on the pier and steeled himself for what was about to happen next. 

He would not break down in front of Elizabeth, or more to the point, in front of Caldwell, he ordered himself. He would hold it together long enough to get through the meeting and then retreat to his quarters where he could fall apart in private. 

"Colonel Caldwell, sir," Chuck greeted Caldwell a few minutes later as they walked into the control room. 

Rodney glanced around, expecting to find somber expressions on all of the technician's faces. Instead, he saw smiles and heard the usual relaxed chatter as if this were any other day. 

What was wrong with people? he silently fumed as he glared at everyone near him. What was worse, they kept looking at him as if he was the one with the problem. 

"Sergeant," Caldwell said. "I'm here to see Doctor Weir. I assume she's in her office?"

"Umm, no, sir," Chuck replied, for some reason looking ridiculously happy. "She's in the infirmary, sir." He turned to Rodney and added, "With Colonel Sheppard, Ronon, and Teyla." 

Rodney felt a hard jolt in his stomach as he stumbled back a step. He felt the railing for the balcony dig into his back as he tried to catch his breath, and his brain flew off in a dozen different directions at once. 

They were alive?

How could they be alive?

Was this a trick of some kind? 

A cruel joke?

How could they be alive?

He had watched, stunned, as the two hive ships blew up. He had checked the data twice after the explosions dissipated, just to be sure. Nothing within the blast radius could have survived that much destructive energy, and the dart couldn't have flown fast enough to escape. 

Rodney tried to take a deeper breath, but something had to be wrong with the air scrubbers for the control tower, he decided as the room started to dip and sway around him. He gripped the railing with his right hand and locked his knees to keep from ending up on the control room floor.

"Say again, Sergeant," Rodney heard Caldwell demand through the roaring noise in his ears. 

"Colonel Sheppard and the others dialled home a few minutes after we received your message about the hive ships, sir." Chuck glanced at Rodney, his expression changing from relieved to concerned. "We tried to contact you, and let you know, but you were already on your way back." 

"In that case, Sergeant, we will be down in the infirmary," Caldwell replied.

"Yes, sir," Chuck replied with another worried glance at Rodney. 

Rodney forced himself to let go of the railing and shuffled after Caldwell as he led the way down the hallway toward the transporter and the infirmary. His mind was still reeling from the news when he followed Caldwell into the infirmary a few moments later and saw Sheppard, seemingly alive and well, standing between two beds talking to Ronon, also apparently in one piece, as if nothing had happened. Teyla sat with her arms wrapped around her knees as she sat on another bed listening to Sheppard and Ronon.

Rodney gaped at the scene for a moment as his brain tried to catch up with what his eyes were telling him. 

"Why aren't you dead?" The question popped out of Rodney's mouth before he could stop it. 

"Nice to see you too, Rodney," Sheppard replied with a cocky grin, and Rodney frowned. After the day he'd had, he wasn't in the mood for humor.

"No, no, you know what I mean," Rodney tried again as he forced his mind to focus. "Why aren't you … dead?" 

He could see Sheppard's lips moving as he said something about a space 'gate, but the roaring noise was back in his ears, and Rodney couldn't make out the details. Whatever issues the control room had with the oxygen systems, apparently had spread to the infirmary. He should have someone to check those systems before the problem got worse. 

He noticed John watching him intently, and he asked after Ford in a weak attempt to distract him. Rodney waited until John and Teyla were debating the odds Ford had somehow survived as well, then wrapped his arms around his middle and backed out of the infirmary. 

He needed to think, to find his bearings. He stumbled back down the hall to the transporter and pressed the section of the map for his lab. If he could just get to the lab, he could lock the door and try to sort out what had become a very confusing day. 

The transporter door opened, and Rodney winced in pain as the bright lights hit his eyes. 

"Now what?" he muttered as he shielded his eyes with his right hand and stepped into the organised chaos around him. With everything that had happened with the hive ships, Rodney had forgotten the _Daedalus_ was actually in the Pegasus galaxy to deliver supplies and new personnel to the city. 

"No, no, no," Radek shouted to two men pushing a platform trolley loaded with a crate.

Rodney ducked his head and tried to cover his ears. 

"You need to take that equipment down to the geology lab," Zelenka finished, still shouting as if the men were on the other side of the city and not a meter away from him. 

Rodney heard the men loudly grumbling as they worked to get the cart turned around and pointed at a different hall. 

"Take the lighting gear to the hydroponics lab, down another floor," Zelenka yelled to someone else. 

"Doctor Zelenka," someone else screamed as they walked past Rodney, "Where do you want the new computer equipment?" 

"Take it to the conference room at the end of the hall," Radek yelled back.

Why was everyone suddenly yelling? Rodney wanted to shout but changed his mind. He wasn't going to find any peace in his lab it seemed, and he didn't need any well-meaning comments or looks from Radek or the scientists. 

He stepped back into the transporter and let out the breath he was holding when the door slid closed, blocking out the cacophony from the hallway.

"Quarters," he mumbled to himself and tapped the section of the map for crew quarters. 

Rodney stepped out of the transporter into the, thankfully quiet, hallway that led to his room and breathed out a sigh of relief when the door to his quarters whispered shut behind him a few seconds later.

He wiped his forehead with the sleeve of his uniform jacket, his room felt like an oven for some reason, then shed the coat entirely. He dropped the coat on the floor near his bed and sank down on the mattress as he tried to get his jumbled thoughts in order. 

They were alive. His team was still alive. How? he wondered again. It didn't make any sense. 

"You saw the explosion," he reminded himself. "You were too late. They needed you, and you weren't able to save them." 

He stood and paced from the desk to the bathroom door and back again as he replayed the events that led up to his team's demise in his head. One moment, a dart Rodney was convinced was piloted by Sheppard was attacking the hive ships, and the next, two massive explosions as the hives destroyed each other. 

He paced faster and faster as he relived the moment when the light from the explosion dissipated, and he realised there was nothing left. No hives. No darts. Just floating debris. 

"Too late, too late, too late," he muttered as he swiped at the sweat on his forehead. 

He angrily kicked the desk chair on his next pass by the desk. The room was too small, too confining, not to mention too hot. He needed … Rodney stared out the window at the darkness. 

"Balcony," he muttered. He needed to get out of the cloying confines of the city. He needed air, he still couldn't breathe, and it was too hot inside his room. 

He squinted in the bright light of the hallway, shielding his eyes as he made his way to the balcony door at the end of the hall. He muttered something between a whimper and groan when he opened the door and felt the cooler air in his face. He stepped outside, letting the door slide closed behind him, and sucked in gulps of air as he made his way to the far end of the balcony in the dim light.

Rodney sat down in one of the chairs, rested his head against the high back, and waited for the ringing in his ears to go away. When he heard the waves crashing against the piers far below, he tried to let the sound soothe his frayed nerves, but it wasn't very long before he couldn't sit still any longer. He jumped to his feet, and paced back-and-forth against the railing, rubbing at the pins-and-needles feeling in his left hand as he tried to catch his breath.

"Rodney?" he heard someone say, and Rodney squinted in the suddenly brighter light.

When did that happen? he wondered, even as he stared at John standing in front of him. 

"Don't," he said and held up a finger. "Don't come any closer." He backed up and wedged himself in the corner between the balcony and the exterior wall of the city. 

"Rodney, you need to calm down," the Sheppard-looking shape said, and Rodney was surprised to see the apparition in front of him appeared to be concerned about something. 

Rodney shook his head and turned away. "Not real. Can't be real," he muttered. "Blew up. Saw it. Not really here. Can't be here." 

"Damn," the shape whispered, then took a step closer. "Everything is going to be fine, okay?" the Sheppard-looking shape said as it held out a hand. 

Rodney glanced at the shape standing in front of him. "You aren't fooling me," he said with a touch of defiance in his tone. "I know the truth. I know you're really dead." 

He took a deep breath and pushed himself out of the corner. For some reason, he couldn't settle. He paced a small circle in the corner of the balcony, rubbing his left hand, and breathing heavily as he moved. 

"I did everything I could think of, you know," he said with a glance at what he decided was Sheppard's ghost. "Everything I could to get there in time. It wasn't enough." He looked down at his hand. "Not enough. Not enough. Should have done more." 

"Hey," the ghost said. "You did --" 

Rodney looked up. "Are Ronon and Teyla going to haunt me, too?" he asked, then shook his head and went back to rubbing his hand as he paced. 

He saw a worried crease form in ghost-Sheppard's forehead. "No one is haunting you." 

"Too late. Wasn't fast enough," Rodney muttered more to himself than to the ghost standing in front of him. "Too late, too late." 

Rodney stopped trying to ease the pins-and-needles feeling in his hand and wrapped his arms around his middle. 

"Come on," Sheppard's ghost said. "It's cold out here, and you don't have a coat on. Let's go inside. Carson --" 

Rodney shook his head and backed away. "Carson. Carson doesn't understand. Yells. Keeps yelling. Everyone is yelling at me." He frowned at how breathless his voice sounded. He was outside, why was it still so hard to breathe? 

"No one is yelling," Ghost-Sheppard replied and took another step toward him. 

Rodney ducked away from the outstretched hand and paced closer to the balcony door. 

"Stay, stay back," he muttered. 

He stumbled as he moved away from Ghost-Sheppard and tried to catch himself on the balcony railing. Unfortunately, he grabbed for the railing with his left hand and lost his balance completely when his hand refused to work. 

He felt himself falling and tried to brace himself for the impact of his body hitting the ground, but it never happened. 

"Rodney?" a voice said from a long way away.

Rodney felt someone pull him up until he leant against something solid, not to mention warm. 

When did it get so cold? he wondered as his body shook harder. 

"Hang in there, buddy. I've got you," the voice said, and Rodney thought he should know who it was speaking to him. Whoever it was, the person adjusted their hold, and Rodney heard as if from down a long tunnel, "This is Sheppard. Medical emergency southwest balcony near my quarters." 

Sheppard? Rodney's fading mind asked as his eyes drifted closed. Where did he come from? There was something wrong with the idea of Sheppard being there with him, but he couldn't be bothered to figure out what it was at the moment. 

"Hey, stay with me, Rodney," Sheppard said, and Rodney felt himself jostled. "Come on, open your eyes." 

Rodney tried to do as Sheppard asked, just like he tried to save John from the hive ship. That was it, he reminded himself. That's the thing that was wrong. John was dead. 

Sheppard yelling for Carson to hurry was the last thing Rodney heard before he surrendered to the silent darkness. 

~*~*~*~ SGA ~*~*~*~

John sat next to Rodney's bed in the infirmary, watching him sleep as he listened to the soft beeping from the heart monitor. Even with the sedative Carson had given him, John could read the monitor well enough to know McKay's blood pressure was still high while his oxygen level was still on the low side even with the nasal cannula helping him to breathe. 

"Has to be better than the mask," John muttered to himself as he shifted position in the chair. The change gave John the faint hope that Rodney was doing better than he looked.

John sat back in the chair, crossed his arms over his chest, and sighed. He wasn't sure what bothered him more, Rodney's rambling about believing John and the others were dead, or the physical state McKay was in by the time he had found him on the balcony. Carson had warned him, but John hadn't expected anything like what he had found. 

He glanced at the other two beds across from Rodney where Ronon and Teyla were asleep. At least, John assumed they were asleep. He had the sneaking suspicion Ronon, at least, was awake and choosing to leave John to his thoughts. 

He scrubbed a hand over his face and stood from the chair he'd been sitting in for the last hour or more. He paced in the space between the ends of the beds, replaying everything that had happened over the last few weeks. Everything from the fake tip about a ZPM, to his team captured by Ford's men, to three members of his team juiced on Wraith enzyme. 

John glanced from Teyla to Ronon to Rodney and shook his head. 

_You're gonna be the witness. You're gonna be the one to tell Weir that her most trusted team has taken the enzyme and is better because of it._

John pursed his lips as Ford's bald statement rose in his memory. 

Rodney had been furious, one of the few times John had seen him so mad. Ronon had been ready to take on Ford and every other man in the compound when he found out their food was tainted. Even Teyla had shown rare anger at what Ford had done to them. But John had convinced them to wait, to play along until they found a way to escape. 

John crossed his arms over his chest. "Great plan you had there, John," he muttered to himself. 

Instead of escaping, Ronon and Teyla had been trapped with him on a hive ship that they barely managed to escape from in time. Ford was, in all likelihood, dead no matter what John said to try and convince himself otherwise. And Rodney was strung out on a self-induced overdose that he only took to save the rest of them from John's bad planning. 

As if hearing John's self-castigation, Rodney shifted on the bed, rolling his head back-and-forth as he muttered something John couldn't catch. He sat back in the chair next to the bed, rested a hand on Rodney's arm, and waited for him to settle. After what had happened on the balcony, John didn't try to speak. He hoped his presence was enough to let Rodney know he wasn't alone. A few moments later, his patience was rewarded when Rodney quieted and relaxed. 

John heard footsteps behind him and turned in time to see Carson stop at the end of Rodney's bed. 

"Colonel," Carson greeted as he glanced at the monitor. 

"Carson. How's he doing?" 

Carson gave him a weak smile. "A little better, I think. His heart rate and blood pressure are lower, at least. I think we've weathered the worst of the storm." 

John scrubbed a hand over his face and thought back to those last few minutes on the balcony. He had watched as Rodney slithered away from him, pacing and muttering to himself, right before he stumbled and fell against the balcony railing. John only had a split-second to realise Rodney wasn't going to catch himself and jumped forward to break his fall before McKay's head hit the ground. He was on his radio to Carson even as he felt the racing pulse and saw how much Rodney was struggling to breathe. 

_John sat with his back braced against the balcony railing with Rodney held against his chest. He could feel Rodney shaking against him, and John wasn't sure if it was convulsions from the enzyme or shivering from the cold._

_"It can't be more than fifty degrees out here," John muttered. "What were you thinking coming out here without a jacket?" he asked even though he knew Rodney was long past hearing anything he said._

_John kept one arm wrapped around Rodney as he struggled out of his uniform jacket and tried to cover as much of McKay with it as he could._

_"Stay with me, buddy," he said in a low voice as he pulled Rodney closer and tried to warm him up using body heat. "Carson is on his way. He'll have you fixed up in no time."_

_Rodney didn't respond. He continued to shudder in John's hold even as his breathing was reduced to short, quick gasps. To John, it felt like hours before Carson appeared with a medical technician and a gurney in tow._

_Beckett dropped to his knees, took one look at Rodney and shook his head. "I need the portable oxygen," he said to the medtech standing behind him as he moved John's jacket out of the way and checked Rodney's vitals._

_John saw the worry line crease Beckett's forehead as he listened to Rodney's chest and checked his pulse._

_The tech set the portable oxygen supply on the ground next to Carson. "Oxygen, Doctor Beckett," he said and stepped back._

Carson nodded, took the mask out of the case, and handed it to John. "Get this on him," he ordered as he found a syringe in another case. 

_"What's wrong with him?" John asked, even as he took the mask and placed it over Rodney's nose and mouth._

_"He's hyperventilating," Carson told him absently as he found a vein in Rodney's left arm and injected the contents of the syringe. "The mask will help his breathing," he said as he sat back on his heels. "That should help with the rest of it," he added as he capped the syringe and handed it to the tech hovering behind him._

_Carson rechecked Rodney's pulse a few moments later and nodded. "Better," he murmured. He turned to the tech and added, "Jason, let's get him up and back to the infirmary."_

_"Carson?" John asked as he helped lift Rodney onto the waiting gurney and covered him with the light blanket as he continued to shake._

_"I don't know. I need to run some tests first. I won't lie to you, though, he's in a bit of a bad way at the moment."_

_John gave Carson a stiff nod and picked up his jacket as Jason pushed the gurney back toward the balcony door. "There's something wrong with his left hand," John said as he held the door for Carson. "He kept rubbing it, and he wasn't able to grab hold of the railing."_

_Carson nodded. "I'll check that as well." He eyed John for a moment, then added, "If I let you wait inside the infirmary, do you promise to stay with Ronon and Teyla while I deal with Rodney?"_

_John swallowed. If Rodney was so bad Carson was willing to let him wait inside the infirmary instead of the hall …_

_"I'll keep out of the way," he promised._

_Carson studied him for a moment, then nodded._

_John followed Carson into the infirmary a few minutes later. He saw Teyla and Ronon climb out of their beds and stand watching as Jason pushed the gurney behind a curtain across the room._

_"I'll come talk to you once I know something," Carson promised with a nod at Ronon and Teyla._

_John nodded, and Carson ducked around the privacy screen. He watched the shadows moving back-and-forth against the curtain for a few moments, then turned his attention to Teyla and Ronon._

_"Colonel?" Teyla asked as John sank into the chair between her bed and Ronon's. "How is Rodney?" she asked as she sat on the edge of her bed. Ronon stood at the end of the bed with his arms crossed over his chest._

_John saw Sharon wheel the Ancient medical scanner behind the curtain and rubbed the back of his head where the itch still tickled his skull. After a moment, he dropped his hand and glanced from Teyla to Ronon._

_"He's …" John shook his head, "He's not good," he finally said. "He collapsed a few minutes after I found him."_

_He heard Teyla hiss in a breath. "That's not the worst of it," John said. "He was onboard the_ Daedalus _when the hive ships exploded, remember? He thinks we're dead and that I'm some sort of ghost haunting him."_

_"Doctor Beckett did say once that the enzyme affects one's perceptions as well as the rest of the body," Teyla told him gently._

_John remembered his conversation with Lorne, and Rodney telling Lorne it had been a mistake to care about John and the others. Was that just the enzyme talking, too? he wondered._

_"Yeah, maybe," John said, and glanced at the curtained-off corner again._

A tap on his arm brought John out of the memory. "You need to get some rest," Carson told him. 

John gave him a crooked smile. He couldn't disagree, but he needed to make sure his team would be all right before trying to get some sleep of his own. 

"What the hell happened to him?" John asked and watched as Carson wrote something down on the computer he held. 

Carson glanced at Ronon and Teyla, then pushed over another stool and sat down in front of John. He rested his forearms on his knees and said, "We still don't know a lot about how the enzyme works in the human body beyond keeping a victim alive long enough to allow a Wraith to feed," he explained. "The closest analogy would be that the enzyme acts like a dose of adrenaline to the system. A little bit, and you feel stronger, faster. For a short time, at least." 

"That sounds about right," Ronon said from behind Carson, and John smiled to himself as Dex sat up in bed. 

"Wondered how long it would take for you to admit you were awake," he said to Ronon. 

Ronon shrugged as he pushed aside the blanket. "You were busy thinking," he replied. 

"You should be asleep," Carson admonished as Ronon got out of bed and stood against the wall next to John. 

"Slept before," Ronon replied and glanced at Rodney. "He's looked better." 

John gazed at Rodney's pale face and couldn't disagree. He rubbed the back of his head where the itch still tickled the base of his skull and turned to Carson. "What about his hand?" 

Carson pursed his lips. "Yes, about that." He glanced at John. "You have to understand when Rodney came back a few days ago, he really was not himself at all." 

"Meaning?" Ronon asked.

Carson sighed, and John wondered what Beckett had neglected to tell him. 

"It was necessary to restrain him," Carson replied in a near-whisper and glanced at John. "For his own safety as much as anything else." 

John winced. "And that didn't go well." 

"You could say that," Carson agreed with a sad smile. "He fought against the restraints until he eventually passed out. From the scans I did earlier, the ulnar nerve in Rodney's hand is inflamed as a result." 

John winced and glanced at Rodney's left hand curled at his side. If there was nerve damage … 

"How bad?" John asked. 

"The ulnar nerve controls the movement of your ring and pinky fingers," Carson explained, holding up his hand and wiggling his fingers. "From what I can tell from his scans, the good news is the nerve is only inflamed, not actually damaged. He's going to have a frustrating time of it for a while, he won't be able to grip anything very well, for example, but given enough time, he should be fine." 

"It can be healed?" Ronon asked, and Carson nodded. 

"I can give him something to help with the inflammation, and he will need to do some exercises to stimulate the nerve itself, but his hand should eventually be back normal." 

John glanced down at Rodney's arms and shook his head. "I still don't understand what happened out on the balcony. He dosed himself days ago." 

"That's true," Carson replied, "but remember what I told you about the enzyme storing itself in human cell tissue?" 

When John nodded, Carson continued, "While Rodney seemed normal, and could even function fairly well, the enzyme was still in his system, waiting to be set loose. When he thought he had witnessed your deaths, adrenaline flooded his system, releasing some of the stored enzyme as well. When he returned to the city and learnt you all were still alive, Rodney received another combination of natural adrenaline and enzyme. Two such doses in such a short period of time are what likely sent him over the edge again."

John shook his head and watched the monitor next to Rodney's bed. 

"So what do we do about it?" Ronon asked a few moments later. 

Carson stood from his stool. "He's going to need plenty of rest and nothing that's going to upset him again," he said, his tone firm. "From the tests I ran earlier, and comparing Rodney's numbers to yours and Teyla's results," he said with a nod at Ronon, "it's going to be several days, possibly a week or more before the enzyme completely breaks down and leaves his system." 

"You're not going to need to …" John looked down at Rodney's arms and then over at Beckett. He didn't want to consider the idea of Carson needing to restrain him again.

"I don't think so," Carson replied with a kind smile. "I'm hopeful that as long as we can keep Rodney calm and avoid any sudden adrenaline spikes, the restraints won't be necessary." 

John glanced at Teyla asleep in her bed then up at Ronon, standing beside him. "What about Teyla and Ronon?" 

"There isn't nearly as much of the enzyme still in their cell tissues," Carson replied. 

"So we're fine," Ronon said. 

"I wouldn't say fine," Carson countered. "But the chances of either of you having such an extreme reaction is remote. And if your bloodwork is anything to go by, even the remaining stored enzyme will be gone in another day." 

John leant back in the chair and rested his head against the wall. Rodney was high-strung on a good day, he mused. Even if Rodney promised to stay out of his lab and let Zelenka deal with any problems, someone would do something that could potentially trigger another reaction. After what he'd witnessed on the balcony, John had no intention of ever seeing something like that again. 

So where could they go? he asked himself. 

John closed his eyes and had started to drift when he felt a tap on his arm.

"Rodney should sleep through the rest of the night," Carson said as John's eyes popped open. "You need to get some rest before you end up as my patient and not a visitor." 

John blew out a breath. He knew Carson was right. Had it only been a few hours ago he'd been flying a dart and inciting two hive ships to destroy each other? 

"Come on, Colonel," Carson said as he pulled John to his feet. "Get some sleep." 

"Teyla and I will keep an eye on McKay," Ronon added. 

"You'll get some rest of your own," Carson countered with a glare at Dex. "I do have a staff who are very good at their jobs, you know." 

Carson waited until Ronon shrugged and climbed back into his own bed, then turned to John still staring at Rodney's bed. "On the off chance something should happen, I will let you know," Carson promised. "The odds of that happening are small, however. Go to bed, Colonel. Doctor's orders." 

John pursed his lips, and with one last glance at Rodney, left the infirmary.


	3. Chapter 3

John finished buttoning his uniform shirt the next morning and glanced from the table in the corner to his desk, looking for his watch. He spotted it on the edge of the desk and caught a glimpse of the two challenge coins on the shelf next to his bed as he reached for it. 

He strapped the watch to his arm and picked up the bronze coin. John smiled to himself as he remembered the team sitting in the conference room with their makeshift Christmas tree, exchanging Secret Santa gifts, and the hesitant smile Ford had given him when he had handed John the envelope containing the coin. 

_"I think he would agree I'm giving it to a man who serves with honor,"_ Ford had told him when John asked if Ford was sure he wanted John to have his grandfather's coin. Since that evening, John had wondered more than once if he was living up to that statement. 

After Ford disappeared, John had tried to return the coin to his cousin, but she had refused to take it. 

_John held out the coin. "Fo -- Aiden, gave this to me. He said it once belonged to your grandfather."_

_Lisa glanced from John to the coin in his hand, her expression a mix of pride and sadness._

_"I think you should have it," John said and dropped the coin into her hand. "It was something important to him, and, well, I think his family should have it back."_

_Lisa studied the coin for a moment, a tiny smile on her lips. She flipped the coin over a few times, then pressed her lips together and held out the coin to John. "If Aiden respected you enough to give you Grandad's coin, you should keep it, Colonel Sheppard." She waited for John to take the coin from her._

_"Are you sure you want to do this?" John asked._

_Lisa smiled at him, but John noticed it didn't reach her eyes as she nodded once and stepped back. "It's your promise to me, and to Aiden's grandparents, that you will find him. You'll find him and bring him home."_

_John ran his thumb over the embossed image of a shield on one side of the coin. "I'll do my best," he promised and dropped the coin back into his trouser pocket._

John flipped the coin over in his hand a few times, lost in thought. He had sent Lisa a few messages since then, letting her know he was still looking for Ford and that he hadn't given up. He had no idea what he would tell her the next time they were due to check in with Earth. Did he let Ford's family continue to live with the false hope he would come home someday, or did he tell them the truth? 

"Or at least a version of the truth," John muttered as he set the coin back on the shelf. 

The sunlight coming in the window behind him glinted off of the silver coin and John stared at it for a moment before picking it up and sitting on the edge of the bed. He studied the eagle in flight, then flipped the coin over and traced the outline of Afghanistan on the reverse side with a finger. 

_John had his arm cocked, ready to throw the football to Vance running a short post when a Marine corporal walked through the middle of their makeshift field carrying a mail pouch._

_"Captain Sheppard --" the corporal started to say._

_"Look out!" John yelled, right before the kid was plowed down by a couple of Reynolds' men chasing Vance._

_John dropped the football and ran over to the pile of bodies on the ground. He helped the corporal back to his feet, and Vance handed him the bag he'd been carrying._

_"You okay," John asked the corporal and gave the other two men a quick glance as they picked themselves up and brushed the dirt off their uniform trousers._

_"Umm, yes, sir," the corporal replied as the other two men nodded. "I think so."_

_"Wanna tell me what's so important you walked into the middle of a play and got yourself flattened just to share it?" John asked. "That pass would have won us the game, you know."_

_The corporal gave the huddle of men standing around him a sheepish look. "Sorry, sir. It's just," he held up to pouch, "mail finally came in. Thought you'd want it as soon as possible."_

_John smiled as Lieutenant Ritchie took the bag with an eager grin. "Yes! What took so long?" he asked the corporal._

_"HQ had intel that a group of insurgents was mining the road out of Kandahar," the corporal replied. "They had to wait for the combat engineer's sweep before any transports were cleared to travel."_

_"Thanks for the personal delivery," John said as the rest of his team surrounded Ritchie and the mail pouch. "Next time, though, wait until the play is finished before trying to cross the football field."_

_"Umm, yes, sir," the corporal replied. He nodded to the men standing around him and left._

_"Sir?" Ritchie said, holding out the pouch._

_"Go ahead, Lieutenant. I'm sure everyone is eager to hear from their families."_

_"Yes, sir!" Ritchie replied and headed off the field with the rest of the team trailing after him._

_John smiled to himself as he picked up the football and tossed it in the air. Even though Ritchie, Vance, and the others had occasional email contact with their families, he knew, for them, there was still nothing like receiving letters from home. Other than a brief email from Nancy that the divorce was finalised, he hadn't had contact with his family in months, and he hadn't heard from his father or brother since before his deployment._

_He strolled off the makeshift field and walked back to the tents. With the arrival of the mail, the game was indefinitely delayed, but he would hold Reynolds to the current score. Couldn't let him think he'd won on a technicality._

_John was sitting in the mess tent, drinking coffee an hour later when he heard several people enter the tent behind him._

_"Hey, Cap," Ritchie said._

_John turned around to find his entire team standing behind him. Knowles and Hunter were openly grinning while Peters elbowed Vance in the side and nodded._

_"Lieutenant," John replied with a raised eyebrow. "What's up?"_

_Ritchie glanced at the men standing around him. "We wanted you to see this, sir," he said and held out his hand._

_John frowned, wondering why his team were all watching him so intently._

_"Okay," John drawled._

_Ritchie dropped something heavy and silver into his hand._

_John looked down at the silver-plated coin with an embossed eagle in flight. John flipped the coin over and saw an outline of Afghanistan backed by the US and Afghan flags with the team's motto, Defenders of Peace, etched along the edge._

_"It was Vance's idea," Ritchie said as John flipped the coin over in his hand._

_"My father had one from his unit in Vietnam," Vance said with a nervous glance at John. "I just thought … I thought, after everything we've been through the last few months --"_

_John stood and clapped Vance on the shoulder. "I think it's a great idea." He looked at the rest of his team. "Why didn't any of you tell me you were doing this?"_

_Ritchie handed out coins to the rest of the team. "Like Vance said, it's been a hard couple of months, and after everything with Hansen …" He shrugged. "We wanted you to know we appreciate everything you do to make sure we get back home."_

_"I …" John looked from one face to the next, at a loss for words._

_He took the safety of his team seriously. To the point he'd been reprimanded more than once for taking risks to get them all back to base in one piece. That was his job, to make sure these men got back to the families waiting for them at home._

_Ritchie studied him for a moment, then held up his coin. "To the best damned unit in the 'Stan!"_

John smiled at the memory. Three months later, he was back in the States, bringing Scott Vance's body home. He rolled the coin over his knuckles and wondered whatever happened to Vance's coin. 

He sat staring at the coin in his hand as another conversation rose in his memory. 

_"You should tell him, John," Teyla said. "If it was important enough for Rodney to know of your decision and what it meant to you after you died, it is just as important for him to know now that you survived."_

John had been meaning to give Rodney the coin for months, but first one thing then another had stopped him. Then the whole Doranda mess had happened, and he had told himself the conversation could wait until he was certain he could trust McKay again. After hearing, and more to the point, seeing, what Rodney had done to try and save them … 

"No more waiting," John muttered to himself and stood. 

He ate a hurried, not to mention lonely, breakfast and was on his way to the infirmary when he heard his name over the radio. 

"Weir to Sheppard." 

"Go ahead," John replied. 

"I am meeting with Colonel Caldwell in an hour to discuss everything that happened yesterday. I'd like you to be there as well." 

"Copy that." 

"Weir out." 

John tapped his earpiece and headed down to the infirmary. He'd have just enough time to check on his people before the meeting with Elizabeth and Caldwell. He walked into the infirmary a few minutes later and smiled when he saw Ronon and Teyla were both awake, finishing their breakfast. 

"Good morning, Colonel," Teyla greeted as he walked over to their corner. 

"Sheppard," Ronon added as John stopped at the end of Ronon's bed. 

"Teyla," John said with a smile. "Ronon. How are you guys doing?" 

Teyla glanced at Ronon and said, "We are well." She held out her arm, and John saw the cotton ball taped to her arm. "Doctor Beckett took more blood samples for testing."

John nodded. "Any word on when he'll let you guys out of here?" 

"Depending on our test results, perhaps this later this morning," Teyla replied. 

Rodney rolled his head on his pillow, and John wandered over to the last bed in the corner. The nasal cannula was still in place, but McKay's face had some color and, more importantly from John's point of view, the itch from the link had disappeared. 

Rodney shifted on the bed again, a frown line appearing on his forehead at the same time his hand tried to brush off the cannula. 

"Hey, leave that alone," John whispered as he trapped the hand and laid it back at Rodney's side. 

Rodney turned his head toward John's voice, and John held his breath. Did McKay still think he was talking to ghosts? he wondered. What would happen when he woke up and found John standing beside his bed? Would Rodney be happy to see him, or would he spiral again? 

John watched him sleep for a few moments, then took the challenge coin out of his pocket and stared at it. He'd need to talk to Carson, he decided. Find out the best way to have the conversation he'd put off for too long. 

"Decide anything about McKay's problem yet?" Ronon asked. 

John tucked the coin back in his pocket, squeezed Rodney's arm, and turned back to Ronon and Teyla. "Not really. I'm open to suggestions." 

Teyla raised an eyebrow and glanced from Ronon to John. "What is this? Doctor Beckett said Rodney was doing much better when he was here earlier." 

John glanced over at Rodney's bed. "Carson is worried about more side effects from the enzyme," John said to Teyla. "Until it's gone, we need to keep McKay away from anything that could set off another reaction." 

"There is the midsummer celebration in the village," Teyla offered. "We could attend the festivities and maybe stay on the mainland for a few extra days." 

John saw the wistful look on Teyla's face and reminded himself Rodney wasn't the only member of his team in need of some rest and relaxation. 

"Sounds perfect," John said with a smile. "When is it?" 

"The end of the week," Teyla replied. 

John glanced at his watch. "Two days," he said with a nod. "I'll talk to Beckett --" 

"Talk to me about what?" Carson said. 

John looked to his right and saw Carson walking toward them. "Teyla may have solved our Rodney problem," John said. 

"The summer festival," Teyla explained when Carson glanced at her. 

"Ahh," Carson replied with a nod. "Charin mentioned something about that when I visited the mainland last week." 

John saw Teyla's puzzled look at Carson's mention of Charin as Beckett walked over to the monitor next to Rodney's bed. He watched as Carson made several notes and nodded to himself. 

"Carson?" John asked as he moved to stand on the other side of Rodney's bed. "How's he doing?" John asked. 

"Much better," Carson replied with a reassuring smile. "If he follows the same pattern as before, I suspect he'll be waking up soon. But I'll want to keep him another day or so just to be sure we don't have a repeat of last night." 

John fingered the coin in his pocket and winced at the reminder of finding Rodney pacing on the balcony right before passing out. 

"What about us?" Ronon asked, waving a hand between himself and Teyla. "I said last night I was fine." 

Carson smiled and stepped back over to Ronon's bed. "And I'm pleased to say all of my tests agree with you. Your latest results don't show any evidence of the enzyme still in your cells. Assuming someone was to bring you a change of clothes." He glanced at John. "You're both free to go." 

"I think that can be arranged," John said with a smile. He gave Rodney another glance and left the infirmary. 

He returned thirty minutes later with a carryall in each hand. He dropped one of the bags on Ronon's bed and handed the other to Teyla. 

"Thank you, Colonel," Teyla said as she pushed aside the bed covers and stood. 

Ronon nodded his thanks, and both of them disappeared to change. 

Carson walked out of his office, heading in his direction, and John decided now was as good a time as any to bring up the discussion he needed to have with McKay. He pushed off the wall between Ronon and Teyla's empty beds, took a step toward Carson, and stopped when he heard a low groan behind him. John exchanged a quick glance with Carson and crossed back to Rodney's bed in time to see Rodney blink his eyes open. 

"Hey, buddy," John said in a low voice. "Welcome back." 

Rodney turned his head, and John could see the wheels turning as Rodney stared at him. He reached out a tentative finger and poked John's arm. "I thought …" He looked around the room and paused. "Aren't you supposed to be dead?" He stopped, staring at something behind John. 

John turned and saw Ronon and Teyla, now dressed in their own clothes instead of infirmary scrubs, walk back over and stop at the end of Rodney's bed. 

"I saw … I thought I saw …" Rodney stopped and squeezed his eyes shut.

John saw Rodney's heart rate increase on the monitor and glanced at Carson. 

"Rodney, I know you're confused right now, but you need to stay calm," Carson told him in a low voice. 

"Was it all a dream?" Rodney asked Carson, ignoring John for the moment. "I wanted it all to be a dream. More like a nightmare, but is that it? Some weird nightmare caused by …" He glanced at John and swallowed. 

"By nearly killing yourself with Wraith enzyme?" John finished for him, his concerned tone laced with a little anger and a lot of fear as he gripped the bed rail. 

"Colonel," Beckett said, the censure clear in his tone before he turned back to Rodney. "No, Rodney, it wasn't a dream." 

"But you didn't see everything," John jumped in as the heart monitor spiked again. He leant forward, his hands still braced on the rail and waited for Rodney to look at him. "I knew the hive ships were going to blow and managed to get through the 'gate in a dart before it was too late." 

Rodney stared at him for a moment longer as he digested that bit of news. "Knew it was you," he muttered. 

John glanced at Carson. "Knew what was me?" he asked carefully. 

"The dart that attacked the hive ships. Told Caldwell it was you." John saw the pride in his expression before his face clouded, and Rodney looked up at him with a glare. "Would it have killed you to send a message?" he grumbled. 

He raised his left hand toward his head and frowned at the curled fingers. "I spent the whole trip back here believing …" He rolled his head away from John. 

John ducked his head. "Yeah, I heard. I'm sorry about that, but we had no way to get a message to the _Daedalus_ since Caldwell was using the FTL drive."

"Someone should figure out a way to fix that," Rodney replied. He rolled his head back, and John saw a smile quirk his lips. A moment later the smile vanished, and Rodney looked around the room again. "If you were the one to nearly get blown to kingdom come, how come I'm the one lying in the infirmary?" 

John glanced over at Carson, hoping he would jump in and help explain.

Carson pursed his lips. "The enzyme you injected yourself with is still in your system --" he started to say, but Rodney interrupted. 

"What?" he exclaimed and sat up in the bed. 

John grabbed Rodney by the shoulders and pushed him back in the bed. "Calm down," he ordered. 

"I will not calm down," Rodney retorted angrily, and John heard his breathing hitch as he tried to twist out of John's grip. "I thought, after …" He gave Carson a wary glance. "I thought it was gone."

"You survived the initial withdrawal," Carson told him, "but that was only the first step." 

Rodney dropped his head back down on the pillow and closed his eyes. "Lovely."

John rested a hand on Rodney's arm and watched as McKay made a conscious effort to get his breathing under control. 

The heart rate monitor slowed its trip-hammer beat, and Rodney opened his eyes. "So now what?" he asked with a glance at John and then Carson. 

"Now," Carson said, "you rest." 

Rodney huffed out a breath. 

"Listen," John said. "Elizabeth wants to meet. She needs to know what happened on the hive ship and everything with Ford." 

Rodney crossed his arms over his chest at the mention of Ford's name, and John saw the heart monitor speed up again. "If he hadn't." Rodney paused. "All of this," he started again and refused to meet John's eye. 

He uncurled his left arm and stared down at his hand. "You understand now he's insane, right?" he asked with a glance at John. "I know you don't want to accept it, but after all of this …" Rodney trailed off, panting slightly as he curled his arms around his chest. "He left us. We didn't leave him." 

John caught Teyla's sympathetic glance in his direction, but a quick look at Ronon was all he needed to know Dex agreed with Rodney where Ford was concerned. 

"Rodney," Teyla started to say, but the scowl on McKay's face stopped her from continuing.

"I think that's enough for now," Carson said to John with a frown as he watched the monitor next to Rodney's bed. "As I said, Rodney needs to rest." 

"I am glad you are feeling better, Rodney," Teyla said as she patted his leg. "We have been concerned." 

Rodney's lips quirked into a crooked smile as he relaxed. "I'm glad you all aren't dead," he replied with a glance at Ronon. 

Teyla smiled, then turned toward the infirmary exit with Ronon beside her. 

John glanced at Carson. He waited for Beckett to nod, then said, "I'll be back in a little while," he said to Rodney as he moved away from the bed and followed Ronon and Teyla back toward the infirmary door.

~*~*~*~ SGA ~*~*~*~

John walked into the mess hall the next morning, spotted Ronon and Teyla and their usual table near the windows, and nodded when he caught Ronon's eye. He hurried through the mess line, gathering his breakfast, and walked over to join them.

"Teyla. Ronon," John said as he set the tray on the table across from them and sat down. 

"Sheppard," Ronon replied as he scooped up more egg with a bit of toast. 

Teyla smiled a greeting and set her teacup back on the table. "How is Rodney?" she asked. 

"Sleeping when I left him last night," John replied and started to eat. "Beckett ran some more tests. He says the enzyme is slowly breaking down, but it's going to be several more days before it's completely gone." 

Teyla nodded. "And he believes Rodney will make a full recovery?"

John nodded. "From the enzyme? He should. His hand will take longer." At Teyla's puzzled look, John added, "He has some nerve damage." John stared down at his plate. "From fighting the restraints." 

"So what do we do in the meantime?" Ronon asked into the silence a few minutes later as he pushed away his empty plate. 

"Halling and I, along with a few of the others from the village, are leaving for Merrik this morning," Teyla said with a smile. "You are both welcome to join us." 

John looked up from his plate. "Merrik?" 

Teyla nodded. "The planet we visited last year with the lake and the ruins," she explained. "There are berries growing in the woods that Iranda bakes into hand pies." 

John had a flash of memory of that first trip through the 'gate with his new team, catching fish with Teyla at the lake, seeing the destruction wrought by the Wraith on the planet first-hand, McKay and Ford trapped in a cave-in. He shook his head and finished his eggs. 

"Beats sitting here," Ronon said, and John smiled to himself. He knew Dex wasn't one to sit idle for long. "Sheppard?" he asked.

"Umm, thanks," John replied with a glance at Teyla, "but there's something else I need to do today." 

"I understand," she said, but John caught the flash of disappointment in her eyes. 

John set down his coffee cup, pulled the silver challenge coin out of his pocket, and laid it on the table between them. 

"Ahh," Teyla said, and her expression cleared as she stared at the coin. "A long-overdue conversation, I believe." 

John acknowledged her point with a nod and sipped his coffee. 

"I don't get it," Ronon said and picked up the coin. 

"I plan to take the advice of a friend," John replied with a nod to Teyla. "Clear the air with Rodney." 

Ronon shrugged and handed back the coin. 

"In that case, we will see you later, Colonel," Teyla said as she stood and gathered her tray and dishes. "Sergeant Stackhouse should be here soon with Halling and the rest of my people making the trip to Merrik. I plan to return to the village with the others to help with the preparations for tomorrow's festivities." 

John watched them leave, then finished the rest of his coffee, cleared his dishes, and made his way to the infirmary. 

He caught a glimpse of Rodney eating from a tray as he walked into the infirmary and turned toward Carson's office. 

John tapped on the door, and Carson looked up from his computer with a smile. 

"Colonel Sheppard," he greeted. "What can I do for you?" 

"I need a favor," John said and sat down in the chair in front of Beckett's desk. 

Carson sat back in his chair. "What sort of favor?" 

"I need to talk to Rodney about something, but I don't want to do it here." 

Beckett frowned. "I'm not sure --"

"I won't take him far," John promised. "We'll go out to one of the piers or something, that's it." 

"Is there some reason why this can't wait?" Carson asked. "Though he won't admit it, everything that happened the other day took a lot out of him. He needs rest, and more importantly --" 

"I know," John said with a glance out the door. "Nothing that will upset him." John stood and played with the coin in his pocket. "It's important, and it's something I've needed to do for some time now." 

Carson pursed his lips and studied John for a moment. "All right," he finally agreed. "One hour. Then I want him back here. I'll find a wheelchair you can use." 

"I don't think --" John started to say, but Carson held up a hand. 

"He hasn't been released yet. You want to take him, he goes in a wheelchair, and if you take him outside, make sure he stays warm. None of us needs to deal with him getting sick on top of everything else." 

John nodded, followed Carson out of the office, and headed for the corner of the infirmary with Rodney's bed.

"Hey," John said in greeting and stopped at the end of the bed. 

"Hey, yourself," Rodney replied, setting down the empty juice glass and rubbing his left hand. 

Carson came up beside John with the wheelchair, set a folded blanket on the end of the bed, and walked around to the monitoring equipment. 

"What's going on?" Rodney asked as Carson disconnected the wires from the pads attached to his chest. "I thought you weren't releasing me yet." 

"I'm not," Carson told him. 

"Think of it as a field trip," John said as he moved the roll-away table out of the way and pushed the wheelchair around to the side of the bed. 

Rodney frowned at the wheelchair. "Wherever we're going, I think I can walk," he said. 

"Doctor's orders," John replied. 

Carson ignored the glare Rodney directed at him and said, "One hour, Colonel." 

John nodded and waited for Carson to walk back to his office. "Come on," he said and helped Rodney settle in the chair. "I wouldn't put it past him to have a stopwatch and be timing us." 

"You still haven't explained what we're doing," Rodney said as John wrapped the thin blanket around his legs, then pushed the chair toward the exit.

"You'll see when we get there," John said as they left the infirmary, happy that Rodney couldn't see his face at the moment.

While he knew the conversation was important, not to mention as Teyla pointed out, long overdue, sitting down and talking about feelings and emotions was never something he relished. But Teyla had been right all of those months ago. Rodney needed to know he was an important part of John's life, and that Doranda was behind them. After everything with Ford and the hive ships, John didn't want to put the conversation off any longer. 

It was a nice day, already warm where the sun shone down on the pier, and the winds were light if a bit cool. John said nothing as Rodney pulled the blanket up and covered his bare arms as a gust of wind blew past them. John stopped pushing the chair several feet from the end of the pier and set the brake. 

"Why do I get the feeling you're about to tell me I'm off the team," Rodney said as John took the blanket and helped Rodney stand. Rodney shook off the helping hand and carefully sat with his legs dangling over the edge of the pier. 

John waited until he was settled, wrapped the blanket around Rodney's shoulders, and sat down beside him. They sat side-by-side, shoulders touching and stared at the water in silence. John had chosen a section of the pier where all they could see was the vast ocean spread out in front of them. He needed the comfort of the surrounding water if he was going to get through the next few minutes. Rodney sat beside him, occasionally giving John a puzzled look, but thankfully not asking questions, as John watched the morning light play across the waves, working up the courage to say what he wanted to say. 

After several more minutes of silence, Rodney's patience apparently ran out. He turned to John and said. "I thought you were supposed to be keeping me calm. Hauling me out here, with that serious look on your face, and then not talking is not helping me stay calm." 

John ducked his head and smiled. He blew out a breath, reached into his pocket, and said, "Hold out your hand."

Rodney gave him a puzzled frown as he untangled his right arm from the blanket. "Umm, okay." 

John dropped the coin onto Rodney's palm and watched as McKay studied it. He ran his thumb over the eagle then flipped the coin over and squinted, mouthing the words of the motto etched along the edge. 

"It's a challenge coin, right?" he asked with a sideways glance at John. "Like the one Ford gave you at our Christmas party?" 

"Yep. The team I led in Afghanistan had that one made."

"That was the team with Scott Vance?" Rodney asked, and John wondered if it was the morning breeze or something else that caused him to shiver. 

John nodded. "Yeah," he replied, his tone full of regret. 

Rodney studied the coin for a few more minutes, then held it out to John. 

"No," John said and closed Rodney's fingers around the coin. "That's yours now." 

Rodney stared at him with a startled expression on his face. "I don't understand. Why are you giving it to me?" he asked as he tucked his arm back under the blanket, the coin secured in his closed fist.

John took a deep breath and stared out at the water, hoping for inspiration on what to say next. 

"After everything in Antarctica with the chair, Elizabeth wanted me to join the expedition." 

"Of course she did," Rodney replied with an exasperated sigh. "You were the only one I'd tested who could do something other than turn it on. And as much as I wanted …" Rodney trailed off and shook his head. "Obviously, it didn't take much convincing." He glanced back at the city and then over at John. 

John shook his head. "I told her 'not interested'," he admitted and refused to look at Rodney.

Rodney's head jerked up at that news. "You said 'no'?" He shivered as a stronger gust of wind blew past them and tried to grip the blanket with his left hand. 

John saw the frustrated look on Rodney's face when his fingers still refused to follow orders. He adjusted the blanket for him, and Rodney nodded his thanks.

"I, umm, I didn't know that," Rodney finished with another wary glance in John's direction.

John nodded. "On the way back to McMurdo, General O'Neill had a few choice words regarding my decision, too, but even then I still wasn't sure what I wanted to do." He glanced over and saw Rodney watching him, listening intently. 

"So I took leave and went home to California. I wandered around a few favorite places, ate a really good steak --" 

Rodney snorted. "And you say I only ever think with my stomach." 

John smiled in return and went back to watching the water. "I sat on a hill, weighed the pros and cons of believing the wild story Elizabeth had told me about travelling to another galaxy, and then flipped a coin." He nodded to Rodney's hand. "That coin." 

Rodney gaped at him. "You flipped --" He shook his head. "Not how I would have made one of the most important decisions of my life, but I still don't understand why you're giving the coin to me." 

"Because it _was_ one of the most important decisions of my life," John replied. "I just didn't realise how important when I was sitting on that hill." 

Rodney looked over at him, and John stuffed his hands in the pockets of his jacket. "When I decided to accept Elizabeth's offer --" 

"By flipping a coin," Rodney muttered, and John heard the disbelief in his tone.

"Hush," John admonished. "And I never said how many times I flipped that coin before making my decision." 

Rodney glanced at him, then went back to studying the coin. 

John ducked his head. "I'm not close to my father or brother, you know that." 

Rodney nodded. 

John took a deep breath and focused on the sunlight glinting off the water. "I hadn't worried about the concept of family for a long time. Years. All of that changed when I flipped a coin." He huffed out a breath. "Thanks to that coin …" John hesitated. "I found Elizabeth and Teyla. Now Ronon." He nudged Rodney's arm. "You." 

Now it was Rodney's turn to stare out at the water, but John caught the shy smile on his face. 

"Chaguo ndugu," he whispered, and John nodded. 

"A flip of a coin and I found something I didn't even know I wanted anymore." John waited until Rodney glanced over at him. "That's why I'm giving you the coin, Rodney." John draped his arm over Rodney's blanket-covered shoulders. "Coming here … it was the best decision I ever made. It's thanks to that coin that I have a family again." He tightened the arm wrapped around Rodney's shoulders. "A brother again." 

Rodney clutched the coin in his hand and refused to look at John.

"I, umm." His voice caught, and Rodney cleared his throat. "I'm, umm, glad you made the right decision," he said with a fleeting glance at John and leaned into the arm around his shoulders. 

John smiled, and they sat in comfortable silence, watching the water. 

~*~*~*~ SGA ~*~*~*~

Rodney sat on the infirmary bed the next morning, the coin John had given him sitting on the bedside table as Carson examined his left hand. 

"Does your hand still ache?" Carson asked. 

Rodney shrugged. "More pins-and-needles, like my hand is asleep," he replied. 

Carson nodded. "It's going to feel like that for a while, I'm afraid."

"Great," Rodney grumbled. 

"You're lucky all you did to yourself was trap the nerve," Carson said. "Once the inflammation goes away, you should be back to normal." He held out his hand. "Squeeze my fingers."

Rodney grasped Beckett's hand in a loose hold. "Well?" Rodney asked as Carson made notes on the computer. 

"It's about as I expected," Carson said as he set the computer on the bedside table. "I'm afraid all we can do is wait. I can give you something for the pain and inflammation and doing the exercises I showed you will help stimulate the nerve." 

Carson reached into the pocket of his lab coat and pulled out a small ball. "Here," he said and placed the ball in Rodney's left hand.

Rodney looked from the ball to Carson. "Are you taking up a sport I didn't know about?" 

"Squeezing it will help with your grip strength," Carson explained. "Keep the ball in a pocket and squeeze it a few times when you're able." 

Rodney gave the ball an experimental squeeze. He could feel the weight of the ball in his hand, but when he squeezed it, the ball barely compressed from the pressure. He tried again, but the ball dropped out of his hand and bounced on the floor. He blew out a frustrated sigh and watched the ball roll toward the infirmary door. 

"Great idea, Carson. I can play fetch with myself," Rodney grumbled as he slipped off the bed. 

Before he could take more than a step or two toward the ball, the door to the infirmary opened, and John walked in, wearing khakis and a button-down shirt instead of his usual uniform. He carried Rodney's mission backpack in one hand and a small carryall in the other. 

Rodney stared at him in confusion as John shifted the carryall to his other hand, picked up the ball, and tossed it into the air. 

"Show off," Rodney muttered as John caught the ball and walked over to the bed. 

John grinned and handed the ball to Carson. "He ready to go?" he asked with a nod at Rodney. 

"Where am I going now?" Rodney asked. "And why are you dressed like that?" 

Carson nodded and set the ball on the table next to the silver coin. "Just remember what I told you, Colonel." 

"Already taken care of," John replied. 

"Would someone tell me what's going on," Rodney demanded, impatience overriding his curiosity. "I have things I need to be doing." 

"No, Rodney, you don't," Carson told him. "According to your latest test results, you still have some of the Wraith enzyme in your system. So you're on medical leave for at least another week." 

Rodney made a disgruntled face, as much for the enforced downtime as Carson's news he still had Wraith enzyme running through his bloodstream. 

"Elizabeth agreed to a few days R&R on the mainland," John said as he dropped the carryall on the end of Rodney's bed. 

Rodney snorted. "Because that went so well the last time." 

John smiled. "No hikes through the woods looking for mysterious energy readings this trip," he said. "Trust me, it'll be fun. Teyla has invited everyone in the city to the midsummer festival this afternoon, and Elizabeth agreed to a few extra days on the mainland for us as a sort of team vacation." 

"Wonderful," Rodney replied as he hefted the carryall. "A week of sheer boredom to look forward to," he muttered and went to change. 

When he came back several minutes later, he found John waiting for him, tossing the ball from one hand to the other. 

"Well?" Rodney said with an impatient wave of his hand toward the door. "Are we going or not?" 

"Carson is almost ready," John said as he continued to toss the ball back-and-forth. 

"Carson's coming too?" 

John nodded. "Except for a skeleton crew of volunteers and us, most everyone else is already on the mainland. We're taking the last jumper." 

Rodney grunted. "I don't suppose I'm allowed to volunteer to stay behind?" he asked and tried to pick up the coin on the table with his left hand. His satisfaction at his success was short-lived when the coin slipped from his fingers a moment later and hit the floor with a clatter. He growled under his breath as he bent to pick it up. 

"What did Carson say?" John asked as Rodney struggled to pick up the coin. Once he had a grip on it, he dropped it in his trouser pocket.

Rodney looked down at his hand and tried to flex his fingers. "Should be fine. Eventually." He looked up and snatched the ball John was still tossing out of the air with his right hand. "The ball is supposed to help." 

John gave him a cocky grin as Rodney stashed the ball in his backpack. 

"Are we all ready, then," Carson said as he walked out of his office, shouldering his medical pack.

"Aren't you taking the Boy Scout motto a bit far?" Rodney asked as he picked up his pack. 

The pack felt lighter than usual, and when he opened it, Rodney discovered John had removed the computer sleeve. Rodney looked up and saw John watching him. He started to say something, but the expression on Sheppard's face made it clear no amount of arguing was going to change John's mind where the computer was concerned. 

"Besides, Carson probably put him up to it anyway," Rodney grumbled under his breath and pulled the pack on without a word to John. 

"There are a few of the Athosians I want to check on while we're there," Carson said as he led the way out of the infirmary. "I can look in on them now and save an extra trip later." 

They walked into the jumper bay a few minutes later and found a small huddle of people waiting at the base of the ramp. Rodney saw Thompson and the rest of his team along with a few of the new scientists and a couple of Marines he didn't know. 

"Anyone else coming?" John asked Thompson as he led the way inside the jumper. 

"This is the last group, sir. Everyone else left a couple of hours ago." 

John nodded and made his way to the cockpit; Rodney trailed along behind him and sat in the co-pilot's seat. Even though he'd managed to get the jumper back through the 'gate by himself after their disastrous mission to Rivas, he was more than happy to leave the flying to Sheppard. 

Carson dropped his pack in the seat behind Rodney and sat down behind Sheppard. 

"Control, this is Jumper Two," John said as he finished his preflight checks and powered up the shuttle. 

"Go ahead, Jumper Two," Chuck replied

"I've got the last group heading to the mainland. Any messages we need to pass along?" 

"No, sir. Doctor Weir was still here when the _Daedalus_ left to return to Earth a few hours ago. Board is all green here. You're cleared for liftoff." 

"Roger that. See you in a few days." John tapped off the radio and toggled the sunroof open. 

Rodney waited until they were over the water, then pulled the therapy ball out of his pack, and tried to squeeze it as he spoke. "What is this festival you're so eager for us to attend?" he asked and growled low in his throat when the ball slipped out of his hand and bounced between the two seats. 

Carson caught it as it rolled past him and handed it back. 

"From what Teyla said, it sounds like a big party. All that would be missing is the fireworks. Not that different from --" 

"Canada Day," Rodney said. 

John rolled his eyes. "Sure, why not," he said with a smile. "Teyla seemed excited when she was telling Ronon and me about it. I got the impression it's kind of a big deal for her people." 

Rodney glanced around the jumper. "Where is Teyla, by the way? Not to mention Ronon." 

"They left for Merrik yesterday." 

"Merrick?" Rodney asked and gave the ball another squeeze.

"You remember," John said and glanced over at Rodney. "The same planet Teyla took us to where we camped by the lake." 

Rodney huffed out a breath. "All I remember about that trip is ending up trapped in a cave-in." He glared over at John. "Your vacations have a habit of leaving me injured, you know that?" he grumbled. 

John's lips quirked as he checked their flight path on the HUD. "This time it will be different," he said with a glance at Rodney. "The celebration is pretty much what you'd expect. Lots of food. Everyone having a good time. Teyla mentioned something about competitions too. Shooting, foot races, that sort of thing." 

Rodney stared out the windscreen as the mainland came into view. "The three of you will have something to do at least," he muttered. 

"You'll be fine," John told him. "It'll be fun. You'll see." 

John flew the jumper over the tent village ten minutes later, and Rodney stared out the windscreen at the number of people, Marines, scientists, and Athosian villagers all mingled together, standing around or sitting at the rows of tables in the center of the village. Colorful bits of cloth tied to ropes strung between poles surrounded the village square and platters of food weighed down one of the tables. 

John circled the village and aimed for the clearing on the far side where the rest of the city's jumpers sat. Rodney made a face when he saw what looked like a cleared space near the forest for the rumored foot races and it wasn't hard to find Ronon helping several Marines set up a series of targets away from the tents, near the fields. 

Rodney watched as John brought the jumper in to land, and waved at Teyla waiting for them at the edge of the clearing. John powered down the shuttle, and Rodney waited until Thompson and the others filed out of the rear of the jumper before following Sheppard and Carson out of the ship and over to Teyla. 

"Doctor Beckett, I am pleased you decided to come," Teyla greeted Carson, but Rodney thought her smile seemed a bit forced when she nodded to him and John. 

"I wouldn't miss it, lass," Carson replied. He gave Teyla a strange look and started to say something else, but Teyla spoke first. 

"The food is all prepared. Everyone is in the central square," she said and nodded her head at the tents behind her. 

Carson looked like he wanted to say something else, but John coughed, shook his head, and jerked his chin toward the tents. Carson hesitated, then pursed his lips and nodded. 

"I'll just go see what everyone is up to, then," Carson said and walked toward the center of the village. 

"Teyla," John said as the three of them followed a few steps behind Beckett. "Something wrong?" 

Teyla shook her head. "Everything is fine, Colonel." 

"You're sure?" John pressed. "No side effects from the enzyme?" 

"No," she replied with another brittle smile. "Come. The celebration is about to start." 

Rodney watched as Teyla walked back toward the tents. "She knows we aren't buying that, right?" 

John shook his head. "She seemed okay yesterday before she and Ronon left for Merrik." 

"And you wonder why I don't want to go back there," Rodney replied and led the way between two of the tents. "That planet is cursed," he muttered under his breath. 

John snickered, and Rodney glared at him. "You have a better explanation?"

"Several, actually," John said with a smile. "Come on. We're supposed to be here to have a relaxing afternoon. Teyla will tell us what's bothering her when she's ready."


	4. Chapter 4

Teyla sat at the long table in the center of the tent the next morning, sipping tea as the last of her people finished eating and left the tent. Now that the festival was over, they had work to do, she knew. The crops still needed tending. She watched through the open tent flap as several hunting parties prepared to set out looking for game. Another group sorted through baskets and chattered happily amongst themselves before setting out to gather wild fruits and herbs. 

She gripped the tea mug tighter and sighed. Up until a year ago, these were all things she would have been busy with as well. Now her people patted her arm as they smiled at her and told her to sit, wait for her friends, have another cup of tea, as they went on with their daily lives. 

When had she become a stranger to her own people? she wondered. When had they stopped treating her as one of them and more as an honored guest? 

She had sensed the change of feeling when she and Ronon had met the group headed for Merrik two days before. 

_"Teyla, it is good to see you," Halling greeted and bowed low to touch his forehead to hers._

_"Halling," she replied with a smile. "You remember Ronon?" she asked and nodded to Ronon standing beside her._

_"Ronon," Halling said with a nod. "We are pleased you could join us."_

_Teyla smiled at the small group of men and women standing behind Halling. "I hope you all are well," she said. Her smile faltered when she received little more than a few tentative nods and smiles._

_Perhaps it is merely the idea of standing in the Ancestor's city, she said to herself as she turned to the balcony._

_"Doctor Weir, we are ready to leave," she said to Elizabeth standing at the railing above._

_"Very good," Weir replied and turned to Chuck sitting behind her. "Dial the 'gate."_

_"Yes, ma'am," Chuck replied, and Teyla watched the symbols on the stargate light up._

_The wormhole formed, and the huddle of people standing behind Halling shuffled toward the shimmering pool._

_"Teyla, Halling, we will see you in a few hours," Elizabeth said with a smile._

_Halling glanced up at Weir and bowed before he followed the others._

_"Doctor Weir," Teyla said with a nod and stepped through the 'gate._

_The sun was shining on Merrik, though the wind was brisk and cool. Teyla smiled as she zipped up her uniform jacket and walked away from the 'gate. It wouldn't be very long before they would be back for the fruit needed for the harvest bread._

_"No jube berries, this year, Tyren," Jansa said to her teenage son. "Iranda was not happy when she discovered your prank last year."_

_"It was just a bit of fun," Tyren argued._

_"You are lucky Iranda found them in time," Jansa replied as she took a pair of baskets from Rada and pushed Tyren toward the path that led into the woods. "To think what would have happened if she hadn't noticed in time …"_

_Tyren ducked his head, but Teyla caught the mischievous smile on his face as he followed his mother._

_"Jube berries?" Ronon asked as Teyla took the baskets Rada held out to her with a smile._

_"They are small purple berries that tend to give one a red, itchy rash if consumed," Teyla replied, and handed one of the baskets to Ronon. "Tyren and a few of his friends picked a basket of them last year as a joke and hid them in amongst the rest of the fruit. If Iranda hadn't caught it in time, the berries would have been baked into the pies, and Doctor Beckett would have had a busy few days dealing with the reactions."_

_"So what are we looking for?" Ronon asked as he and Teyla followed the rest of the Athosians down the dirt path and into the trees._

_"Rubus berries," Teyla replied, pointing to a broad-leafed plant growing under a nearby tree. She picked several of the ripe red berries and held them in her hand for Ronon to see._

_"On Sateda we called them Bramble berries," Ronon said as he ate one of the berries in Teyla's hand. "My mother would make them into jam."_

_Teyla smiled and watched as her people wandered deeper into the trees, laughing and talking as they hunted for berries. It took her a moment to realise she and Ronon had been left to themselves as the others broke into groups of twos or threes and scattered into the forest._

_"We will search in this direction," Teyla said, and tried to ignore the stab of hurt in her chest as she led Ronon farther into the trees._

Teyla sighed and sipped her tea. She had thought she was doing right by her people joining Colonel Sheppard's team, exploring the galaxy, ensuring her people remained safe from the Wraith. Was the price for her people's safety her own exile from them? she wondered.

She sat, lost in thought, until she saw the tent flap move and Colonel Sheppard entered, followed by Rodney and Ronon. 

" … I'm sure we can get Caldwell to bring some out on the _Daedalus_ ," John said with a grin. 

"You know, you're not nearly as funny as you think you are," Rodney retorted with a glare as he squeezed something in his left hand. 

John only smiled wider. "I told you once before I was going to find you boots with velcro instead of laces the next time you did something to your hands." 

Teyla gave Ronon a puzzled look as Sheppard and Rodney walked over to a small table where plates of different fruits sat along with clean dishes. 

"Boot laces," Ronon said. He jerked his chin at Rodney's left hand, and Teyla saw the object he was squeezing was a small ball. 

Ahh, Teyla mouthed. She saw the mutinous expression on Rodney's face as he glared at Ronon and decided to change the subject. 

"There is porridge," Teyla indicated the pot sitting on top of the stove in the corner, "as well as fresh fruit and hot water for tea." 

"I don't suppose there's any chance for coffee?" Rodney asked as he shoved the ball in the pocket of his jacket and took the bowl Ronon handed him.

"No," Teyla replied and stood. She filled a plate with various fruits and brought it back to the table as the others found seats and started to eat. She set the plate in the middle of the table and sat down beside Rodney. 

Ronon picked up a sugar pear and bit into it. Rodney gave the plate of fruit a wary glance and went back to his porridge. 

"We are officially on stand-down for the next three days," Sheppard said a few minutes later. "Any ideas on what to do?" 

Rodney looked up from his bowl. "I thought you had a plan?" 

"I did for the festival," Sheppard replied. He glanced across the table at Teyla and Rodney then at Ronon sitting next to him. "We could head back to that beach where we camped last year." 

"Doesn't matter to me," Ronon said with a shrug. "Beach works." 

John grinned. "I'll teach you all how to surf. You'll love it." 

"You're kidding, right?" Rodney said as he pushed his empty bowl away. "Do I look like someone who wants to surf?" 

John smiled and shook his head. 

Rodney crossed his arm over his chest and added, "Besides, I don't swim."

John gave him a curious look. "Don't or can't?" 

Rodney looked away, focusing on the plate of fruit, and ignoring Sheppard's question. 

Teyla followed his gaze and handed him a piece of fruit. "It is a sugar pear," she explained as Rodney turned the piece of fruit over in his hand. 

Rodney nodded his thanks, picked up a knife, and promptly dropped the pear in his lap. 

Teyla heard Rodney's low growl as he set down the knife, picked up the pear with his right hand, and bit into it. 

"Rodney," Sheppard drawled. "Don't you know how to swim? You lived most of your life right next to Lake Ontario." 

Rodney glared back at John. "Do you have any idea how polluted that lake is? Not to mention how cold?" He took another bite from the pear, chewed, and swallowed. "These are pretty good," he said to Teyla and took another bite. He swallowed and looked back at John. "Besides, I had better things to do with my time, anyway." 

John studied Rodney for a moment longer, then shook his head. "All right, no beach this trip." He turned to Ronon. "What about a rematch? We could take the targets over to the field where we park the jumpers." 

Ronon smiled. "Think you're going to do any better this time?" 

"To be fair, when Teyla said there would be shooting competitions, I expected guns, not bows and arrows." 

"So that would be a 'no', then?" Ronon replied.

"I thought you did well, Colonel," Teyla said with a smile.

"Thank you, Teyla," John replied with a mock glare at Ronon. 

"Still lost," Ronon replied. 

"I've had more practice now," John countered. 

"Uh-huh," Ronon said.

Teyla let the friendly argument wash over her as she went back to thinking about her place with her people. Everything she had done since Sheppard's arrival in her village was to protect what remained of her people.

When John had first asked her to join his team, Teyla had seen it as an opportunity. She could learn more about these new visitors to her galaxy, and at the same time, ensure her people were protected from the Wraith. Sheppard and Weir had assured her they would do everything they could to end the cullings. Joining Sheppard's team, helping the Earth people find resources and allies, was one way Teyla could do her part to assist with ridding the galaxy of the Wraith. 

It had been easier when the Athosians were still living in Atlantis, she admitted to herself. 

In those early days, several of her people had assisted with trade and goodwill missions, introducing the Earth people to the Pegasus galaxy and the various planets her people knew well. Over the ensuing months, the number of Athosians accompanying the expedition teams had dwindled, until Teyla was the only one of her people permanently assigned to a 'gate team. Even then, she had still considered herself an Athosian first. 

Teyla looked down at the sleeve of the uniform jacket she wore. When did Earth-based clothing become second nature? she wondered. Wearing the uniform jacket and trousers on missions was one thing, but the thought hadn't even crossed her mind before going to Merrik, much less coming to the village, to change into Athosian leggings. 

Perhaps she had changed more than she realised, Teyla thought to herself. 

If she were honest, there was an excitement to going through the stargate and visiting new worlds. Yes, sometimes those missions were dangerous, their recent missions to Rivis and Mendar were proof of that. But she had also seen some wondrous places, too; planets she was only able to experience, thanks to Colonel Sheppard and his people. 

So was she still Athosian? she asked herself as she plucked at the jacket sleeve. Was there a way to balance her dual lives in a way that worked for both her people and the city? 

Teyla glanced up and saw Rodney watching her. He gave her a puzzled frown, but she only shook her head when he started to open his mouth. She stood from the table, walked over to the stove, and poured herself another mug of tea as an excuse to escape Rodney's scrutiny.

Is it any wonder so many of your people only see you as a visitor now and not a member of their community? Teyla chastised herself as she stood near the back of the tent. 

In the year since her people had moved to the mainland, she had done her best to maintain as much contact as possible. She had regular updates from Halling about the village and what her people needed in terms of supplies or assistance. She had made a point of travelling to the mainland before the storm to help with the evacuation and afterwards to help with the clean-up. She had made several trade excursions off-world over the last year specifically to help her people. 

When was the last time you came just to talk to them? she asked herself. To listen to the stories Halling told after the evening meal. Or sit on the council and hear the grievances of your people?

She came to the mainland when she had questions, either about the link Sheppard and Rodney shared or about her own mysterious connection to the Wraith. She came when it was her duty to do so, either to deliver supplies, or help after something like the storm the previous year. But when was the last time she came simply to play with the children? 

She had been surprised when Jinto and Wex had left that morning with one of the hunting parties. In her mind, they were still boys who played hide-and-seek games in the forest at night. Now Jinto was as tall as she was, and as he had proven the day before, rather deft with a bow.

When did they get so big? she wondered. 

_"You have changed, Teyla," Charin said, her tone a mix of sadness and understanding._

_"My hair is shorter," Teyla replied, and winced when she heard how defensive she sounded._

_She felt bad enough already for not visiting more often. If Charin took her to task as well, Teyla wasn't sure what she would do. She knew she could chalk part of her current mood up to lack of sleep from the nightmares about becoming a Wraith, but she also felt guilty for her lack of involvement lately in the village._

_"Ah, it's more than your hair, dear. I can still see the little girl who used to paint me beautiful pictures while she sang the songs of the Ancestors."_

_"I have not been that girl in a long time, Charin," Teyla replied, hoping to avoid what she knew was coming next._

_"No, but even Teyla, leader of the Athosians, always found the time to come and visit with poor old Charin."_

Teyla cringed at the memory as she finished her tea and set the cup aside. Since the siege of the city, she had made a few trips to the mainland to see Charin when she was ill, but she realised with a start that other than the weeks she had spent on the mainland after Rodney broke his leg, she hadn't spent much time at all with her people the last few months. Even after she was shot, she had mostly stayed in the city, only travelling out to the mainland for a few days at a time.

"Charin warned you months ago," Teyla murmured. "You didn't listen." 

"Teyla?" John asked, and she looked up to find John, Ronon, and Rodney all watching her. "Everything all right?" 

Teyla pasted a smile on her face. "Yes, Colonel. Everything is fine," she replied and walked back over to the table. "If it is all right with you," she glanced from Sheppard to Rodney to Ronon, "I believe I will spend the day visiting with my people." 

"Umm, sure," John said, and with a puzzled frown. "Teyla --" 

"I will see all of you later," Teyla said with a nod and left the tent without a backward glance. 

~*~*~*~ SGA ~*~*~*~

John watched Teyla leave the tent and turned back in time to see his concern mirrored on Ronon's face. John raised an eyebrow in question, but Ronon merely shook his head. 

"Is she mad at you?" Rodney asked, confusion evident in his tone as he stared from the tent flap to John. "What did you do?" 

"Pretty sure I didn't do anything, Rodney," John replied. "Anything strange happen while you two were off-world the other day?" he asked Ronon. 

"Nothing. We were only gone a couple of hours looking for fruit. When we got back, Teyla wanted to go to the mainland with the others." Ronon shrugged. "I decided to come with her." 

"You didn't notice anything else?" John pressed. 

"Everyone was busy getting ready for the celebration. Didn't seem to need much help from us." Ronon paused. "She did spend some time with an old woman." Ronon shrugged. "That's about it." 

_"It is more than that. Charin is very dear to me. As with you and Rodney, she is my chosen family." Teyla looked down at her hands. "She is the only family I have left. I am not sure what I will do once she is gone."_

Was that it? John wondered. Beckett had left their tent early that morning to check on patients. Was Charin ill again and that was the reason for Teyla's distracted mood? 

John glanced at the open tent flap and shook his head. Whatever was wrong, it was obvious Teyla didn't want to talk about it. He decided to let the matter lie for the moment, and hoped she knew she could come to him … to them if she needed help.

"If Teyla is spending the day with the Athosians, that still leaves us," John said as he stood from the table. 

"We could go back to the city," Rodney suggested. "I have things I need to get done." 

John crossed his arms and stared across the table at McKay. 

"Or not," Rodney muttered. 

"There's another hunting party going out," Ronon said. "We could go along." 

Rodney gave Ronon a sour look. "You're kidding, right?" 

"I've got it," John said and turned toward the tent flap. "Come on." 

"Where are we going?" Rodney asked as John led the way back through the tents to the clearing where the jumper sat. 

John pulled the remote out of his pocket and pushed the release button for the rear hatch. "We are going to take the jumper and do some exploring." 

"Thought you would have done that already," Ronon said.

"This landmass is huge," Rodney told him. "Close to fifteen million square miles. Before the Athosians moved out here from the city, we surveyed the area where they wanted to settle, but with the Wraith, never mind the Genii and any number of other problems, there was never time to do more." 

"Exactly," John said with a smile. "So, let's do something about that. Who knows what we might find out there." 

Rodney made a face but followed John into the cockpit. 

"Sheppard to Teyla," John said over the radio as Rodney sat in the co-pilot's chair next to him. 

"This is Teyla." 

John frowned at her distracted tone. 

"I've got Rodney and Ronon with me. We're going to take the jumper up and see some of the sights. We'll be back later this afternoon." 

"Understood, Colonel," Teyla replied shortly. 

Teyla cut the connection, and Rodney glanced at John. 

"You're sure you didn't do something to make her mad?" he asked as they lifted off. 

John rolled his eyes as the jumper levelled off and headed south and east. "I don't think she's mad at us." 

Rodney settled back in his chair. "If you say so." 

"I think she's worried about Charin," John said as the jumper soared over the nearby forest. "Teyla mentioned something about Carson making a couple of trips out here to check in on her." 

"Oh, umm, I didn't know about that," Rodney replied. 

John said nothing as the shuttle left the forest and the Athosian village behind and a broad plain with a river flowing through it opened up below them. 

The Athosians had settled on the western edge of the continent, near the coast, in what amounted to a temperate rainforest. The area had been the first the expedition had surveyed, being the closest shore to Atlantis. Once the word came back the area appeared safe, the Athosians had been eager to leave the city and return to something like their lives before the expedition, not to mention the Wraith, had come to Athos. 

"There aren't any interesting readings from the sensors," Rodney reported as he studied the panel in front of him. "No energy readings, obviously. Life signs all appear to be animals. As I suspected, there's nothing out here of interest." 

John shook his head as he stared out the windscreen at the untamed landscape below them. "Sometimes the view is reason enough," he replied and nodded at the waterfall in front of them as they left the plain for a series of rocky hills.

"Oh, that could be interesting," Rodney said a few minutes later. He ignored the view out the window and pressed two of the tiles in front of him. 

"What?" Ronon asked.

"The mineral content in those mountains," Rodney replied and pointed out the windscreen. "Lots of iron and copper." He glanced at John and added, "If these readings are right, we could make a small fortune in gold mining." 

John laughed. "Somehow I don't see the SGC getting on board with that." 

Rodney shrugged. "You might be surprised what they would agree to given the right incentive," he said under his breath, and John suspected he wasn't meant to hear the comment. 

They flew on in silence, John and Ronon enjoying the view while Rodney split his time between watching his board, glancing out the window, and squeezing the therapy ball Carson had given him.

"So do you have some sort of plan or are we just going to fly around until we run out of gas?" Rodney asked as they flew over more open grassland thirty minutes later. 

"No plan," John replied. "What, are you bored already?" 

"I could be back in the city getting things done. Instead, I'm trapped --" Rodney stopped talking and stared out the windscreen as a herd of some sort of animal galloped across the plain below them.

To John, the animals looked like a giant elk with a rack of thick antlers that spread six or seven feet on either side of each animal's head. He could only imagine the thundering noise as the animals ran toward the rocky hills they'd left behind in the distance.

John flew lower to get a better look at the animals and whistled. "Must be thousands of them," he muttered as more and more animals passed under them and as far as the eye could see in either direction.

"They're huge," Rodney muttered, and John heard the awe in his voice.

"Taller than a man," Ronon agreed. "Not easy to hunt, either. Hart make for better hunting. Smaller, but less dangerous." 

John hovered the jumper over the herd and watched as they ran out of sight. Once the animals were gone, John pulled back on the controls, sending the jumper higher into the air.

"Now tell me that wasn't impressive," John said with a glance at Rodney. "Just like those stories you hear about the buffalo herds in the US before all the settlers moved west." 

"Yes, fine. It was something to see," Rodney grudgingly agreed. "And they're called bison, now." 

John grinned and changed course as a mountain range came into view ahead of them. 

"Any preference on which way we go," John asked as he looked out on the line of tall peaks vanishing into the distance to the north and south of them. 

"Coast should be that way," Ronon said and pointed to their left. 

"South it is," John said and turned the ship. A river below them acted as a natural landmark and John followed the course of the water as it wound through the valleys below. 

"Wait! Turn around. Go back," Rodney said after they'd been following the river for several minutes. 

"What?" John asked. 

"Turn around," Rodney ordered and stuffed the ball he'd been squeezing in his jacket pocket, "I thought I saw something." 

"Saw what exactly?" John asked as he turned the jumper in a wide arc and headed back the way they had come. 

"I'm not sure," Rodney retorted, "That's why you're going back." 

"Well, what did it look like?" John demanded as the jumper passed the mouth of a different valley where a smaller stream joined the river they had been following. 

"It looked like that," Rodney replied and pointed out the windscreen.

"Whoa," John said and flew the jumper lower so they could get a better look at what appeared to be the bow section of a large spaceship resting on the valley floor.


	5. Chapter 5

John flew over the downed ship, unable to believe what he was seeing. Where did it come from? he wondered as he turned and made another pass near the ship.

"They were attacked by something," Ronon said, and John saw the long dark streaks along the side of the ship as well as a few sections where the grey hull was missing. 

"Attacked by what?" John asked. 

Ronon shook his head. "No way to know." He bent forward and peered out the windscreen. "If the ship came down intact, the rest of it is probably buried in the hillside." 

"Any idea what kind of ship it is?" John asked as he flew out over the open, grassy plain in front of the ship. "Some sort of Ancient scout ship or something?"

Rodney shook his head. "Doesn't look Ancient to me." 

"McKay's right," Ronon added. "It's not Wraith, either. Whatever it is, it's been there for a long time." 

"There was nothing about the Ancients finding crash survivors in the database?" John asked as he flew around the exposed section of the ship again. 

"If there was something in the database about possible technology just sitting out here waiting for someone to find it, don't you think I would have said something by now?" Rodney retorted. 

"All right, fair point," John replied. "Maybe the Athosians know something about it," he suggested and reached up to his earpiece. 

"We're hundreds of miles from the village," Rodney told him. "It would take weeks to walk here from the village. I doubt any of them has been out this far."

"The whole ship must be the size of the _Daedalus_ ," John said as he made another pass over the downed ship. "There's some more of it." He pointed at more of the dull grey hull peeking out of the side of the hill.

"And you're sure there isn't anyone else living on this planet? Ronon asked. 

"We're sure," Rodney replied. "There was nothing in the database about a native population." He studied the HUD for a moment, then added. "And the only life signs I'm seeing are scattered, so probably just animals." 

"The Ancients left a long time ago," John said. "You have to admit it's possible another civilisation could have settled here after they were gone." 

Rodney pursed his lips. "Okay, yes, it's possible. But don't you think we would have found some evidence by now if that were the case?" 

"You said yourself you never bothered to survey the rest of the planet," Ronon said. 

"And I think we just found something," John added with a nod out the windscreen. 

"Fine," Rodney replied with a scowl. "So what are we going to do now that we've found it?" 

John glanced first at Rodney, then studied the ship out the window. Did they stay and investigate or report the find to Elizabeth and let Lorne and another team deal with it? John asked himself. Rodney seemed better. But Carson would have his head if something happened and McKay had another enzyme reaction. 

On the other hand, while he may tease Rodney, he was a bit bored as well with nothing to do in the village. There was a reason he never took a vacation. 

"I know what you're thinking," Rodney said.

"Oh?" John replied and focused on the controls in front of him. 

"You want to go explore that ship, but you're afraid of Carson." 

"I wouldn't say afraid --" John said and Rodney snorted. "Okay, maybe a little concerned," John added with a smile as he studied McKay. "The reason we're here is so you can relax and recover. Not sure Carson would see digging around in an alien ship as relaxing." 

"I feel fine," Rodney told him. "Besides," he added with a crooked smile, "it is a spaceship. Imagine what we could find inside." 

"I am, that's kind of the problem." 

"So what are we going to do?" Ronon asked.

John glanced down at the ship then over at Rodney one more time before he pressed the tile for the jumper's radio. "This is Sheppard calling Atlantis Base." 

"Atlantis Base, Colonel," Chuck replied. 

John glanced at the HUD. "I'm roughly 450 miles south-south-east of the Athosian village with Ronon and Doctor McKay in the jumper. We've stumbled on something that looks like a downed ship." 

"Say again, Colonel?" 

"You heard that right, Sergeant. There's some kind of spaceship that crashed out here. We're going to land and take a look around." 

"Colonel Sheppard, this is Weir," Elizabeth said over the open channel. "All things considered it might be better to let another team handle this investigation." 

John heard Rodney grumble under his breath and held up a hand. "We're already here, Elizabeth. We're not getting any life sign readings coming from the ship or the surrounding area. We should be fine." 

There was a long pause over the radio and John exchanged a pensive look with Rodney. 

"You do remember what happened the last time the two of you found a crashed spaceship?" Elizabeth asked, and John saw Rodney wince. 

"McKay and Ronon both agree it's not Ancient or Wraith," John said. "If that's the case, we really need to take a closer look." 

"All right, Colonel," Elizabeth said after another pause. "You have a go to explore. Just be careful." 

"Roger that. Sheppard out," John replied and tapped off the radio. 

"What happened the last time?" Ronon asked as John landed the jumper behind a copse of nearby trees. 

Rodney ducked his head and crossed his arms over his chest. "It was a Wraith ship. It wasn't as deserted as we thought." 

Ronon snorted, and Rodney glared over at him. "Hey --" he started to exclaim, but John interrupted. 

"Rodney, double-check nothing is showing up on the scanner," John ordered, hoping to stave off an argument. 

Rodney pressed a tile on his board and looked up at the HUD. "Still no life signs. No energy readings either. We're going to have to hope I can find a way to power up some systems or we aren't going to discover much." 

"We'll figure something out," John said as he shut down the ship's systems, lowered the ramp, and led the way into the rear section of the jumper. 

"Hang on a minute," John said as Rodney started down the ramp. "Let's do this right," 

He pulled a small grey case out of the webbing over the rear bench seats and opened it. "Here," he said and handed Ronon one of the two Beretta handguns inside the case along with an extra magazine. "That's it for ammunition," he added as he checked the other weapon and found two holsters in another case under the seat. "If we find trouble, don't waste any shots." 

John caught Rodney's startled look from the corner of his eye but ignored it. 

"Unlike you, I hit what I aim at," Ronon replied with a grin as he strapped on the holster, checked his weapon, and walked out of the jumper. 

"It was a bow!" John called after Dex as he buckled the other holster around his waist. "Let me use a gun, and it won't be so easy to beat me."

Ronon turned around and spread his arms. "Any time, you want to be embarrassed again," he replied and walked out into the surrounding trees. 

"What about me?" Rodney asked with a wary glance from the gun on John's hip to the ship. 

"We only have the two weapons," John replied, "so, you stay behind me." He pulled a backpack out of another case and filled it with spare rations, a few water bottles, and the first aid kit. 

"Don't forget the tool kit," Rodney said and pointed to a roll wedged into the corner of the webbing. "I'm going to need it if we hope to get any of the ship's systems back online." 

John grabbed the roll of tools, stuffed it in the pack, then zipped the pack closed and settled the straps over his shoulders. He grabbed the two big flashlights out of the webbing over the other bench seat and handed one to Rodney. 

"One last thing," John said and strolled back into the cockpit. He tapped the panel next to the pilot's chair, and when the compartment slid open, he pulled out the Ancient scanner and handed it to Rodney. "Keep an eye on the scanner. Let us know if you see anything." 

"I haven't modified this one," Rodney said as he turned the scanner over in his right hand and followed John down the ramp. "It's not going to tell us very much." 

"Just let me know if you get any readings," John said as Rodney stuffed the scanner in his jacket pocket. He turned back to the jumper, tapped the remote, and watched as the hatch closed. "Come on," he said and walked back through the trees toward the downed ship. 

"Seems clear," Ronon said when John and Rodney stopped next to him. "And I found an access hatch," he added and jerked a thumb over his shoulder. 

John glanced at the superstructure and saw the recessed door in the side of the ship. The hull around the door was dented and scraped, but he wasn't sure if the damage was the result of the firefight the ship had been in or the rough landing. 

Rodney walked over to the hatch and studied it for several seconds, then pressed against a section of the frame. A panel opened a few inches, and Rodney tugged it open until he could see inside. 

"Definitely not Ancient," Rodney muttered as he poked his hand into the open panel and made a face. He pulled out what looked like a cracked circuit board and glanced at John. "If I can't find a way to bypass these blown controls, we aren't going to be exploring anything." He turned the board over in his hand. "Hand me the tools; this is going to take a few minutes." 

John pulled the bundle out of the pack and handed it over. He waited until Rodney had a sure grip on the roll, then walked over to Ronon standing near the bow of the ship looking up at the underside of the exposed hull. 

"Any ideas on who it belonged to?" John asked as he handed Ronon the other flashlight and studied the ship. 

Ronon shrugged. "Not many to choose from," he replied. "Could be a Traveller ship. Or pirates." 

John pursed his lips at the idea of pirates. He hadn't thought about Rasha and his men in months. Part of him wondered if the men they had left on M3X-777 were still alive. He glanced at Rodney grumbling to himself as he worked on the door controls and decided he really didn't care one way or the other. 

He looked up and saw Ronon watching him. "We've run into some of those pirates before," John said. "Who are these Travellers? Never heard of them." 

"Nomads," Ronon replied. "Story goes their homeworld was destroyed by the Wraith. They had ships," he nodded at the ship in front of them, "and the survivors chose to live in space where the Wraith couldn't find them." 

John stared at the ship, trying to imagine living his entire life confined inside four walls, never feeling the wind in his face or swimming in an ocean. He wasn't sure he could do it. 

"Come on, work," he heard Rodney mutter a few minutes later, along with the sound of metal groaning. John glanced back at the ship. 

Rodney crouched in front of the hatch, several wires hanging from the open panel. As John watched, he separated two of the wires from the rest, twisted the ends of the wires together, and stepped back. 

"That should have worked," Rodney said with a glare at the still-sealed hatch. He took a step toward the panel and was reaching for the twisted together wires when the hatch slid open. 

"Good work," John said as he walked back over to the partially open hatch. 

He picked up the flashlight Rodney had set on the ground, ducked down enough to see inside the opening, and waved the flashlight beam back-and-forth. The passage in front of him led in one direction and seemed clear of debris. Seeing the inside of the ship, John had to agree with Ronon and McKay, this wasn't a Wraith design. The bulkheads were metal, not semi-organic, for one thing. For another, there wasn't the distinctive odor of decay he'd remembered from the inside of the hive ship.

He glanced back at Rodney packing up his tools, then over at Ronon. "I've got point. Ronon, watch our six." He took the bundle of tools from Rodney and stashed it in the backpack. 

Ronon nodded and clicked on the other flashlight. 

John checked the floor of the corridor with the flashlight, then ducked under the half-open hatch and led the way inside the ship. Their corridor ended in a junction fifty feet later, and John swung the flashlight beam first one way and then the other. 

"Any ideas on where to look first?" he asked with a glance behind him at Rodney and Ronon. 

"Any useful information is going to be on the bridge," Rodney replied. "We should try to find that first." 

"Okay --" John started to say but was cut off when the hatch slammed closed behind them. 

"No, no, no," Rodney muttered and turned around. He took a step back toward the sealed hatch and glared up at Ronon who stood in his way. "Do you mind?" he asked with a scowl. 

John gave Ronon a nod, and Dex stepped aside. 

Rodney hurried back to the hatch and felt along the wall with his right hand. "A little light would help," he said and looked over his shoulder. 

Ronon held the beam of light where Rodney could see the bulkhead surrounding the door. 

John watched as he found the control panel, pulled it open, and peered inside. 

"This is not good," Rodney said a few moments later. "I don't think I can get the hatch open from here." 

"Why not?" Ronon asked. 

Rodney pointed to the open panel. "This doesn't actually control the door. It's like a card reader …" He glanced at Ronon and shook his head. "Never mind." He looked at John. "All this does," he pointed at the keypad on the control panel, "is send information to the ship's security systems and relay back a response." 

"So fix it," Ronon said. 

Rodney glared at him. "Weren't you listening? There's nothing here I can use to get this," he slapped the hatch, "to open." 

Ronon snorted, and Rodney's glare changed to a scowl. Before he could say anything else, John spoke up. "You had it open before," he pointed out. 

"Yes, from the outside," Rodney retorted. "Apparently, whatever this ship was, it had a lot of internal security." 

"Meaning?" John asked. 

Rodney turned around, his eyes wide. "Meaning unless we find the systems that do control the doors, and assuming I can figure out a way to bypass those systems, we're stuck in here." 

~*~*~*~ SGA ~*~*~*~

Teyla stood outside the meal tent and watched as a group of young men carrying a variety of tools walked off toward the fields. Another group of men and women sat at a table, sorting through various tools and weapons, making repairs. She smiled at a group of younger children chasing each other near the treeline. 

She wandered through the village, taking in the sights and sounds of her people going about their lives, no critical emergencies to deal with, no dire situation in need of immediate attention. Just living their lives, free from the fear that the Wraith would descend and cull their families or friends. 

This is what she had always wanted for her people, for the entire galaxy, Teyla thought to herself as she walked. 

At one time her people had been scholars, engineers, they had lived in a great city, not that different from Atlantis. But her ancestors had forsaken the city after a great culling. Her people had set aside their books and became simple farmers and hunters following the herds of animals as the seasons changed in order to survive. 

As she looked around at her people, Teyla began to see the possibilities of a galaxy freed of the Wraith once and for all. Sheppard and Rodney had told her many wondrous stories of life on Earth. She hoped one day her descendants would be able to tell the same sort of stories. 

If they could stop the Wraith once and for all, what advances could her people make? she wondered. Perhaps, one day, they would build another great city like the one on Athos.

Teyla came around another of the tents near the edge of the village and found Halling standing next to the well, talking to Therin. They both stared into the bucket Therin held with concerned expressions on their faces, and Halling said something to Therin that Teyla couldn't hear. Therin nodded in reply and dumped the bucket of water into a pail that Halling picked up as Therin lowered the bucket back into the well. 

Teyla took a few more steps toward the well, curious to know what was going on. 

"Let me know if the next bucket is bad, we'll use it on the crops," Halling said to Therin. He picked up the pail and turned toward the fields on the other side of the village. 

"Halling?" Teyla called as she hurried to catch up with him. "Is there something wrong with the well water?" She looked into the pail and saw the water was cloudy and some dirt had settled at the bottom of the pail. 

"There is nothing to worry about," Halling told her. "It has been happening a few times in recent weeks that the first few buckets drawn from the well are cloudy. We simply use that water on the fields. The rest of the day, the water is better."

"I can ask Doctor Weir --" She stopped speaking when Halling started shaking his head. 

"There is no need to concern Doctor Weir," Halling told her and walked a little faster. "It is possible the well is running dry, nothing more. We will monitor it, and if necessary, we will dig a new well." 

"Is there a reason you do not wish to ask for help?" Teyla asked with a frown. 

Halling stopped and turned around. "There are some among us who believe we are becoming too dependent on Doctor Weir and the people from Earth." 

"Halling --" 

"Our people have survived for countless generations since the Ancestors departed this galaxy," Halling interrupted. 

"As hunters and farmers," Teyla replied. "With the help of Colonel Sheppard, Doctor McKay, and the others, it may be possible to finally free ourselves from the threat of the Wraith and become so much more. Can you not see that?" 

Halling set the pail on the ground and rested his hands on Teyla's shoulders. "I wish for nothing more than to see the day the Wraith are defeated. Jinto has already lost his mother in a culling, I do not want him to suffer more loss at their hands."

Halling stepped back and picked up the pail. "Until that day arrives, however, we must continue as we always have, with hunting and farming." He paused and smiled at her. "And digging new wells when needed."

Teyla nodded as she watched Halling walk toward the fields. She blew out a breath and tapped her earpiece when Colonel Sheppard paged her over the radio.

"Sheppard to Teyla." 

"This is Teyla," she replied, watching the men and women working in the fields greet Halling.

"I've got Rodney and Ronon with me. We're going to take the jumper up and see some of the sights. We'll be back later this afternoon." 

Teyla glanced back at the clearing where the jumper sat and saw Iranda walking toward her, a worried crease in her forehead. 

"Understood, Colonel," she replied and tapped off the radio. "Iranda?" she asked. "Is everything all right?" 

Iranda shook her head. "Something is wrong," she replied. "Something with the trees." She turned away from Teyla and stared at the nearby forest. 

"I do not understand," Teyla said, glancing at the trees. "Are you saying you had a vision about the trees?" 

Iranda nodded and stood for a few minutes, staring at the forest. "They were dancing, but there was no wind. The trees were screaming. I believe there is danger in the forest. Teyla, you must warn the people, it is not safe to be in the forest today." 

Teyla squeezed Iranda's hand. "I will do what I can," she promised.

Iranda smiled and nodded, giving the forest another wary glance as she walked away. Teyla saw Isla meet her outside one of the tents and the two women disappeared inside. 

Teyla remembered watching Jinto and a hunting party leave the village and wondered how many others were out searching for game this morning. 

"Halling would know," she muttered to herself. 

She glanced at the fields, looking for Halling but didn't see him amongst those tending the fields. Teyla turned in a circle until she found him, a bow strapped to his back, heading toward the trees. 

"Halling, wait," she called. 

Halling stopped and turned toward her, and Teyla forced herself to remain calm as she walked over to him. 

"Teyla? Did you wish to come along?" Halling asked as she stopped next to him. 

Teyla shook her head. "Iranda has had a vision," she said. "Where are the hunting parties today?" 

Halling glanced at the nearby forest, and Teyla saw his face blanch. "There are three groups out today," Halling said. "Kanaan believed a group of hart were in the area. We were planning to scout the area and find the herd. It was meant to be a chance for Jinto and some of the older boys to practice their tracking skills." 

"They need to be warned," Teyla said. "Iranda believes something is wrong in the forest. She says she saw the trees dancing." 

Halling nodded. "I will gather a few men and go after them. What of the village?" he asked and looked at the tents. 

"Iranda did not say anything about the village itself in any danger," Teyla assured him. "However, it may be wise to move the tents near the edge of the trees, just in case." 

Halling glanced from the tents to the forest, torn between finding Jinto and helping in the village. It was a feeling Teyla knew well. 

"Go," Teyla told him. "Find Jinto and the rest of the hunters. I will take care of moving the tents." 

Halling bowed his head to Teyla and ran for the trees calling to several others to join him. 

Teyla spent the next hour talking to the villagers, reassuring them that Halling and his group would find the hunters in time, and assigning people to tear down and move the four tents nearest the forest. She was pleased with the way her people responded to the emergency. There was no panic, everyone willingly set aside other tasks and helped those living in the designated tents to move their belongings. 

Two of the hunting groups returned over the course of the hour. Teyla watched as they were greeted by family members, then set aside their bows and helped with the tents. The only group still missing was the one led by Kanaan that included Jinto. 

The last of the tents were struck and Teyla glanced at the trees one more time before she turned to Olette standing next to her. "I must check on Charin. Please let me know if there are any problems relocating the tents." 

Olette smiled. "Go. Go, see your chaguo bibi. We will be fine." 

Teyla nodded her thanks and turned toward the tents on the other side of the village. 

"Charin," she called a few minutes later and scratched the side of one of the tents. "It is Teyla, may I come in?" 

"Teyla, my dear," Charin greeted. "Come in, come in." 

Teyla frowned at how frail Charin's voice sounded but wiped the concern from her expression as she stepped into the tent. She found Charin sitting in a chair near her stove, a thin book spread on her lap and a cup near her elbow. 

"I will put on the kettle," Charin said, moving the book to the table and slowly pushing herself up from the chair. 

"I can do that," Teyla said with a smile and felt another pang in her chest as Charin settled back in the chair with a tired-sounding sigh. 

Teyla spent several minutes puttering with the tea things until the kettle whistled. 

"Thank you, dear," Charin said as Teyla poured tea into two cups and handed one to Charin.

Teyla nodded, found a stool and sat down across from Charin sipping her tea. "How have you been feeling?" she asked. 

Charin smiled and set down her cup. "I am better now that you have come to visit," she said and clasped Teyla's hand. 

"I know Doctor Beckett has been out to see you a few times this last month. Is everything all right?" 

Charin sighed and settled back in her chair. "I am getting old," she said. "There is not much your Doctor Beckett can do to help with that." 

Teyla pursed her lips. "I have watched him do many amazing things. I would not be so sure of that," she replied with a tiny smile. 

Charin waved a dismissive hand. "I am one of the fortunate ones. So many of our people never reach such an advanced age." She gave Teyla a wise look and added, "What is wrong, child?" 

Teyla looked down at her cup as her earlier worries flooded back. It had been difficult enough admitting to herself that she had been neglecting her duties to her people. She was not sure she wanted to hear Charin confirm her suspicions. She stared at the floor, unsure how to explain the dilemma of her dual lives. 

"You are still our leader, Teyla. The people here trust you," Charin said into the heavy silence, and Teyla looked up with a start. 

"How did --" 

"It is written plainly on your face, my dear," Charin said with a smile. "And I was watching you yesterday during the celebration. You fear you are losing touch with your own people by living in the city." 

"I do not know what to do," Teyla admitted. "As part of Colonel Sheppard's team, I am helping to protect our people from the Wraith. However, I also feel as though I am missing so much by not being here." 

"Have you talked to your friends about your concerns?" Charin asked. 

Teyla shook her head. "I do not believe they would understand," she replied. "Neither Colonel Sheppard nor Doctor McKay has close family ties on Earth, and both left their homeworld voluntarily to come to this galaxy." 

"What about Doctor Weir?" Charin suggested. "Surely as a leader herself, she will understand your situation." 

"Perhaps," Teyla replied evasively and sipped her tea.

Charin sat forward in her chair and took Teyla's hand. "Could you stop travelling through the portal?" Charin asked. "Could you give up having adventures and return to the simple life of farming and hunting?" 

Teyla stared at Charin as she considered Charin's point. The truth was she wanted to live in the city. She wanted to travel to new worlds and meet new people. Yes, there was danger, but she trusted Sheppard to bring them all home safely. She knew that Ronon had her back on those occasions when they ran into trouble. She could even admit she enjoyed learning about the Ancestor's technology when Rodney tried to explain how a device or system they discovered worked. 

She had friends in the city just as she had friends in the village. Could she choose between them? 

As she sat, lost in the realisation she could not deny either half of her new life, Teyla felt Charin squeeze her hand. 

"You must talk to your friends and the people here in the village," Charin said. "Both need to understand the choices you are making and why." She let go of Teyla's hand and sat back in her chair. "And you must find a balance between your two lives." 

"That, I am afraid, may be easier said than done," Teyla replied. She finished her tea and stood. "Thank you, Charin, for the tea. And for the clarity." She bent forward and kissed Charin on the cheek. 

"That is one of the advantages of getting old, dear. We see things as they truly are." 

Teyla smiled. "I also wanted you to know Iranda has had a vision regarding some sort of danger in the forest. We are moving several tents and Halling has gone to find the last of the hunting parties. I need to check on those helping with the relocation and make certain everything is under control." 

"Of course, dear," Charin replied. "That is what good leaders do. Go, go," she said and waved her hand toward the opening in the tent. "I will be here when you are done." 

Teyla was several tents away when she saw Carson walk out of another tent carrying Jeeta in his arms. "There, now, all done, and you were a brave lad," he said to the toddler as he handed him off to Isla. "The inoculations may make him feel a wee bit peaky for the rest of the day," Carson said to Isla as the boy curled himself in his mother's arms and hid his face in her neck, "but otherwise he's healthy as you could wish." 

"Thank you, Doctor Beckett," Isla said with a smile. 

"You're welcome, lass," Carson said with a smile and stepped back from the tent. 

"Doctor Beckett," Teyla greeted as Carson bent to pick up his medical pack. 

"Hello, Teyla, love," Carson replied as he looped the strap for the backpack over one shoulder and glanced over at the groups rolling up the dismantled tents. "What's going on, then?" 

"Iranda had a vision about the forest," Teyla explained. 

"What sort of vision?" 

"She saw the trees dancing," Teyla replied. "She believes there is something dangerous about the forest today." 

Carson turned in a quick circle. "Do I want to know where the rest of your team got to?" 

Teyla smiled, and they started walking toward the dismantled tents. "Not to worry, Doctor Beckett. Colonel Sheppard radioed earlier this morning that he, Ronon, and Doctor McKay were exploring the planet in the jumper. They are in no danger." 

"I wouldn't be too sure of that, lass," Carson said. "It never ceases to amaze me the amount of trouble Rodney and Colonel Sheppard can find for themselves." 

Before Teyla could reply, a series of loud pops and cracks came from the nearby forest just before several trees fell with a crash. She pulled Carson to a stop next to her and stared at the forest. Dozens of trees swayed back-and-forth as more popping and cracking noise came from the edge of the forest. A corner of Teyla's mind noted there was no wind as she and Carson, along with several villagers, ran to the edge of the treeline.

A few seconds later, several people ran out of the forest including Jinto and Wex. Halling brought up the rear of the group. 

"Keep going!" he shouted to the people in front of him. 

"Halling?" Teyla asked as he stopped and glanced behind him. 

"The ground in the forest is no longer stable," he said.

"An earthquake?" Beckett asked.

Halling shook his head. "I do not believe so." 

The trees near the edge of the forest started swaying, and Teyla heard a loud thump as one of the tall pines fell somewhere within the forest. 

"We need to move," Carson said as another tree crashed to the ground nearby. 

Teyla was a few steps in front of Carson and Halling, pushing Jinto and Wex in front of her as she moved, when she heard a low, rumbling growl coming from behind her. She turned and watched as the trees near the edge of the clearing violently swayed back-and-forth and several more trees fell. She froze with one hand on Jinto's shoulder when she heard a new cracking, tearing sound coming from all around them. She glanced at the trees, then down at her feet as the ground around her started to shake. 

"Run!" Halling yelled just before the ground opened up beneath him and he and Carson disappeared.


	6. Chapter 6

"Who designs a space ship without a way to release the hatch manually?" Rodney muttered to himself as he ran his hands over the bulkhead to the left of the hatch. "More proof this isn't an Ancient ship."

"What?" Ronon asked. 

Rodney glanced over at him and shook his head. "Nothing," he replied. He took the flashlight from Ronon and studied the grey walls surrounding the hatch. 

He let the beam from the flashlight play over the walls, picking out bent supports and buckled wall panels where the ship was damaged from the impact with the valley floor. Add in the obvious blast damage to the hull and it wasn't hard to figure out the ship had been shot down by something. 

Some system left behind by the Ancients to protect the planet? he wondered. 

He felt a thrill of excitement as he considered the idea and made a mental note to check the database once they were back in the city. He doubted he could get any such systems to work even if they did exist, chances were they would need Zed-PMs to function. But if he could somehow incorporate those systems into the city's defences … 

"All right, if you got it open from the outside once," Sheppard said and reached for his earpiece, "maybe Zelenka can get it open again." John looked up at the ceiling and tapped his earpiece. 

"Sheppard to Atlantis Base," he said over the open channel, and Rodney went back to his study of the bulkhead next to the hatch. 

Instead of Weir or Chuck answering Sheppard's call, Rodney heard a loud burst of static through his earpiece and winced. 

"Gah!" he exclaimed as he let go of the flashlight and pulled the earpiece out of his ear. 

Rodney looked up and saw John rubbing his own ear. 

"What the hell?" Sheppard asked. 

"Something must be blocking the signal," Rodney said as he dropped the earpiece in his trouser pocket and massaged his ear. 

"On purpose?" Ronon asked, picking up the flashlight. 

Rodney shook his head. "I doubt it. Whatever metal the ship is made from is probably blocking the signal." He turned his back on the sealed hatch. "The ship had to have a way to communicate, though. One more reason to find the bridge," he added with a glance at Sheppard. "Even if our gear doesn't work, we might be able to use the ship's systems to contact the city." 

"All right," John agreed. "Bridge it is." He glanced from Rodney to Ronon. "Stay behind me, and watch where you walk. The last thing we need is someone falling through a hole or something." 

Rodney followed as Sheppard led the way back to the junction at the end of the corridor. He watched as John checked the new hallway and cocked his head before he turned down the left-hand passage. 

The new corridor was much the same as the last, lots of damage to the walls and ceiling, but there still weren't any doors or even access tunnels to reach the ship's internal systems. 

Where was the engine room? Rodney wondered. Or weapons systems? More proof as far as Rodney was concerned that the ship had some sort of utilitarian purpose. This exploration was turning out to be a bust in terms of finding anything of interest, he grumbled to himself. 

The corridor ended at another junction, and John hesitated for only a moment before he turned to the right.

"Don't you remember the rule about mazes?" Rodney asked even as he followed Sheppard down the new corridor. 

"We aren't in a maze, Rodney, we're on a ship," John replied. "And there's only so many ways to build a ship, no matter what galaxy you're in." 

"How do you know this is the right way?" Rodney asked, glancing at the nearest wall. 

There were no directional signs stating where things were, even assuming they'd be able to read them, and the walls were solid metal. For all he could tell, they were aimlessly wandering. 

Sheppard stopped and turned around. "The bridge is most likely at the front of the ship, right? Like the _Daedalus_?" 

Rodney nodded. "Logically, yes." 

"The front section of the ship was angled toward the west." John pointed down the corridor they were following. "That way is west." 

"How can you possibly know that? It's not like you can look out the window and check." Rodney waved at the solid wall next to them.

"It's called having a sense of direction," Sheppard replied and started walking again.

Rodney snorted. "I've had experience with your so-called sense of direction before, you know." 

"I didn't get us lost on the way back to that farm," John retorted. "That was the Genii and their convoluted directions." 

Rodney started to say something else, but Ronon spoke over him. 

"We're going the right way."

"See Ronon agrees with me," John said with a smile. "What are you getting on the scanner?"

Rodney grimaced. After everything with the hatch, he had completely forgotten about the scanner. He pulled the device out of his jacket pocket, mentally turned it on, and promptly dropped it when he tried to change the settings. He grumbled under his breath and searched the ground for the device. 

A beam of light picked out the scanner on the floor, and Rodney caught John's worried look as he bent and picked it up. Beckett had assured him the nerve damage would heal, but he was already tired of constantly dropping things and he still had little sensation in his fingers beyond the tingling. 

Rodney held the scanner in his right hand and awkwardly poked the screen with his left. Between the tingling making it hard for him to control the device, and the fact the scanner was not the one he usually used, it took him a few minutes to configure the scanner to do what he wanted. He finally managed to start a search for energy readings and was surprised when the scanner signalled it had found one. 

"Something still has power," he said as he looked up from the screen. "I'm picking up a consistent low-level energy signature now that we're inside the ship." 

"Thought you said there weren't any energy readings," Ronon said. 

Rodney shrugged. "The same metal that's blocking the radio must have prevented our sensors from finding it before."

"Where's it coming from?" Sheppard asked, and Rodney shook his head. 

"It's too faint to get a fix on a location." Rodney glanced up at a hole in the ceiling. "At least we know there's still power. One less problem to solve once we get to the bridge. As long as I can find a way to access the ship's systems, I should be able to get the hatch open." 

John nodded and ducked under a metal girder hanging precariously from the ceiling. "Must have been a hell of a fight," he said as he moved the flashlight beam over another gaping hole in the ceiling. 

Metal creaked and groaned around them, and Rodney swallowed as he followed Sheppard down the corridor. It would be just his luck that the ship would decide to collapse while he was still inside it. He gave the ceiling a hard look as he ducked around the metal beam and hurried to catch up with John. 

The passage ended thirty meters later where another hallway met the corridor they were following. There was also a narrow landing for a metal staircase. The narrow steps resembled a ladder more than the wide stairs he was used to in Atlantis and led up through a gap in the ceiling.

Rodney looked up and saw the edge of the next deck on the other side of the gap. The thin metal railing bracketing the steps rattled when John took hold of it which did nothing to help Rodney's peace of mind that the ship wasn't about to come crashing down around their ears. 

"Any preference?" John asked, pointing the flashlight first up and down the ladder, then along the new corridor. 

"Up," Ronon replied. "The bridge was several decks higher than the hatch." 

John flashed the beam of light over the narrow set of stairs. "Stay here," he ordered as he grasped the handrail with one hand. "I'll check the next deck and be right back." 

The metal stairs creaked loudly as John climbed up through the gap to the next deck. Rodney watched as Sheppard stepped off the top step and waved the flashlight back-and-forth. 

"Well?" Rodney asked a few moments later. 

"The damage looks worse up here," John replied and pointed the flashlight back down the stairs. "Come on up, but watch your step." 

Rodney gripped the railing with his right hand and was near the top of the steps when the beam of light from Sheppard's flashlight suddenly cut off. At the same time, he felt a whoosh of air and heard a loud bang as a bulkhead slammed closed a handbreadth away from the top of his head. 

Rodney yelped as he instinctively ducked, letting go of the railing in the process, and half-stumbled, half-fell, back down the steps.

Ronon caught him at the bottom of the ladder, gave him a quick once over, and let go of his arms. 

"Too close," Rodney muttered and stared, wide-eyed, at the bulkhead that had nearly decapitated him. He was still patting the top of his head when he saw Ronon tap his earpiece a few seconds later. 

"He's fine," Ronon said with a glance at Rodney. "The barrier missed him by a few inches." 

Rodney realised he must be speaking to Sheppard, and reached up to tap his own radio. He frowned when he found the earpiece missing, felt in his trouser pocket, and found the earpiece he'd taken out after the loud burst of static had nearly deafened him. 

He looped the earpiece over his ear and tapped it. "Sheppard?" he said. There was a persistent, low hiss of static in the background, but Rodney could hear John over the radio. 

"You're sure you're all right?" Sheppard asked. 

Rodney nodded even though John couldn't see him. "What did you do?" he asked.

"I didn't do anything, Rodney," Sheppard replied. "The bulkhead closed on its own." 

"Great," Rodney muttered and carefully climbed up the narrow steps until he could touch the metal barrier. "Looks like we tripped some sort of security protocol. I guess now we know what that energy signature is for. Is there any sort of panel on your side to control the bulkhead?" 

"Not that I can see," John replied through the hiss of static a few seconds later.

Rodney perched with his back pressed against the wall and reached out with one hand, feeling along the edges of the barrier. He was about to ask Dex to point the flashlight upwards so he could see what he was doing, when the beam of light hit the bulkhead a little to the left of his shoulder. "There's nothing on this side, either," he said to John. 

"All right, you and Ronon see if you can find another ladder that leads up here. If we don't find each other, we'll meet on the bridge. Watch yourselves and be careful. Sheppard out." 

Rodney looked down at Ronon. "You got that?" he asked as he climbed down the ladder. 

Ronon nodded. "There should be another ladder on the other side of the ship." He pointed to the corridor on his right. He started down the new corridor without another word, and Rodney followed. 

The hallway led deeper into the ship and there was less damage as they moved away from the outer hull. 

"Any ideas on what kind of ship this was?" Rodney asked as they walked.

Ronon glanced around. "Might be some kind of converted freighter." 

"Did, umm …" Rodney glanced at Dex's back and considered whether to ask his next question carefully. "Did your people have, umm, spaceships?" 

Ronon turned around and Rodney held up a hand when the flashlight beam caught him in the face. 

"No," Ronon replied, his tone gruff as he lowered the beam. "We had flying craft, but nothing space-worthy." 

Rodney nodded and was willing to drop the subject when Ronon added, "We traded with a few Traveller ships. And I've seen some others." 

Before Rodney could ask what a Traveller was, they reached the end of the corridor and found another set of steps. "If the bulkhead triggers when someone passes it --" he started to say. 

"Sheppard was clear for a few seconds before anything happened." 

Rodney stared at Ronon, wide-eyed. "Meaning what exactly?" 

"You know to climb faster this time," Ronon replied and started up the steps. 

Rodney waited until Ronon was a few steps above him then quickly followed. He tried telling himself getting a leg caught in the opening was better than his head but breathed out a sigh of relief when he stepped off the ladder onto the next deck. He glanced back at the gap he'd climbed through and had started to think the bulkhead nearly decapitating him had been a fluke when he heard a grinding noise and the hatch below them slammed closed. 

"If that's going to happen each time one of us changes decks …" Rodney muttered under his breath as he followed the beam from the flashlight in Ronon's hand. Maybe they should have gone to the beach, he thought to himself.

They climbed several more decks, finding much of the same sort of damage on each level. Whatever had happened to the ship, it was obvious, even to Rodney, they'd been outgunned. He followed Ronon up another ladder, prepared to find more of the same and stared at the relatively intact corridor in front of them. 

Unlike the lower hallways, the new corridor was wider and less industrial. Someone had painted the metal walls a color other than flat grey, Rodney wasn't sure if it was supposed to be white or a sort of dull pale yellow, but it was a pleasant change from the gunmetal grey of the lower decks. Another difference was the large, rounded doorways spaced every five meters on either side of the corridor. All of the doors were closed, but Rodney didn't see any obvious locks. 

"Stop," Rodney said as he paused in front of one of the rooms, studying the flat metal door recessed into the wall. 

Ronon backtracked to where Rodney stood. "What?" he asked, and pointed the flashlight at the door. 

"Aren't you at all curious what could be inside?" Rodney asked as he examined the door. 

Ronon glanced at the door and shrugged. "Not really." 

Rodney shook his head at the lack of interest. "Look, we're already here. We may as well find out as much as we can, now, so I know which scientists to bring back with me once we get back to Atlantis." 

"You want to bring scientists out here?" Ronon asked and glanced back at the ladder behind them.

"Are you kidding?" Rodney exclaimed. "Of course I'm going to bring people back here. There could be all kinds of useful technology on this ship."

Ronon pursed his lips. "Sheppard wants us on the bridge." 

Rodney ran his fingers around the outside of the doorframe and smiled when he found a recessed switch. "And we'll go," he said. "Right after I find out what's behind door number one here." 

He toggled the switch and winced when the door screeched as it ground against the frame and slid open. Rodney took a step into the room, but Ronon blocked him with an arm and moved in front of him. Rodney blew out an impatient breath but stepped aside so Ronon could enter the room first. 

Ronon stopped a few paces into the room and swung the flashlight back-and-forth. Rodney followed him inside, eager to see what could be in the room and froze in surprise. 

The space was roughly the same size as his quarters in Atlantis and filled with everything from scraps of cloth that may have been clothing at one time, to tools, to children's toys. 

"This was some sort of refugee ship," Ronon muttered as he moved the beam of light over broken crates of books and the furniture stacked along the wall to their right. 

"So what happened to the refugees?" Rodney asked in a whisper.

~*~*~*~ SGA ~*~*~*~

It was several minutes before the ripping noise of the ground tearing itself apart stopped, and Teyla glanced back at the forest behind her. Some of the nearby trees still swayed violently, and she heard several thumps and crashes as a few more fell somewhere in the forest. What shocked her was the wide pit that had opened up only a few feet away from her. The crater was the width of several tents, and Teyla distinctly heard the sound of running water coming from the depths of the hole. 

Most of the hunting party gathered not far from Teyla and Jinto and stared at the gaping hole in the ground. There was no sign of the village well that had stood near the edge of the trees, nor could she find Halling or Doctor Beckett. 

"Father!" Jinto screamed and tried to run toward the hole. 

Teyla grabbed hold of him and pulled him back. "Jinto! Stop! It is not safe," she said, and held onto his arm even as Jinto tried to pull out of her grasp. 

"No, we have to do something. We have to help him. Please!" 

Teyla saw her own fears mirrored in Jinto's eyes as he pulled against her hold on his arm. 

She had experienced earthquakes before, they had happened on occasion on Athos when she was a child, even then the ground had always seemed solid and stable beneath her feet. To see it vanish in the blink of an eye, taking two people she cared about … She had no frame of reference for such a thing. 

Teyla wrapped an arm around Jinto and held him against her as he continued to struggle. 

Doctor Beckett had done so much to help her and her people in the year and a half she had known him. More than that, he was a good friend. She couldn't imagine Atlantis without him, and had no idea what she was going to say to Doctor Weir if Carson was gone. 

As for Halling, even though they had disagreed more often since coming to Atlantis, Teyla knew he was one of her closest allies as well as one of her oldest friends. She silently vowed to do everything she could to help him, but she also knew Halling would want her to protect his son above all else. 

Teyla kept a light grip on Jinto's arms as she turned him to face her. "We are going to do everything we can to help your father and Doctor Beckett," she promised. "But we must take care. We will do them no good if we fall into the crater with them or if we send more debris down on top of them." 

Jinto took a deep breath and Teyla watched as he forced himself to calm down. He glanced from the hole in the ground to her and nodded. "What do we do first?" he asked.

Teyla smiled and let go of Jinto's arms. "All right, before we can help them, we need to find them and --" 

She heard raised voices behind her and turned to see everyone from the village hurrying toward them. She wasn't ready to answer any of the questions she saw brewing on the faces coming toward her, but the arrival of the rest of her people at least gave her an excuse to keep Jinto away from the pit. If the worst had happened, if Halling was dead, she didn't want Jinto to see his father's broken body at the bottom of the pit. 

"Jinto, I need you to stay here and keep the others back until I know more," Teyla said with a nod at the group heading in their direction. 

"What am I supposed to tell them?" Jinto asked as the villagers came closer. "I'm just a kid, they won't listen to me." Jinto looked up at her. "Maybe you should talk to them." 

Teyla rested her hands on Jinto's shoulders. "You are no longer a child, Jinto. Would your father have allowed you to partake in a hunt if you were?" She felt Jinto shrug his shoulders. "Once I find your father and Doctor Beckett, we will need everyone's assistance getting them out of that hole." 

"Do you think they are still alive?" Jinto asked in a whisper. "The ground just …" He waved a hand at the hole in front of them. 

Teyla touched her forehead to Jinto's, a corner of her mind noted she no longer had to bend down to reach him. "Your father is one of the strongest men I know," she told him. "If anyone could survive that," she nodded at the hole, "it would be him." 

Jinto glanced back at the crater. "He can't be dead," he said, stepping back and wrapping his arms around his middle. "He can't." He gave Teyla one last pleading look, then turned and walked over to the nearest group of people. 

"Teyla wants everyone to stay back," Jinto said as he tried to move the villagers away from the hole. 

"What happened?" Teyla heard several people asking as she turned back to the gaping pit between her and the forest. 

"Is anyone hurt?" a few others asked as Jinto tried to answer their questions. "Someone should find Doctor Beckett." 

Teyla ducked her head at the mention of Carson's name. While she wanted to give Jinto hope, the reality was she wasn't sure how Halling or Beckett could have survived something like the ground disappearing out from under them. If the pit was even half as deep as it was wide, they could have fallen thirty feet or more. 

A number of trees had fallen into the pit with them. Had they been impaled by any of the branches? she wondered. Or crushed under the weight of the earth that had disappeared with them?

"Enough," she ordered herself. She knew part of her hesitation was her own desire not to have her worst fears confirmed. She took a deep breath, slowly let it out, then squared her shoulders and walked toward the hole.

When she was a few feet from the edge of the drop-off, Teyla lay flat and crawled on her belly until she could see over the edge of the hole. She couldn't stop the gasp of surprise as she stared down into the crater. She scrabbled around on the ground next to her, found a small stone, and tossed it into the hole. It took several long seconds for the stone to plop into the steady stream of water flowing along the bottom of the crater. 

Whole trees littered the bottom of the hole blocking the stream in a few places, creating shallow pools before the water disappeared again when it reached the opposite side of the pit near the forest. Broken tree trunks and sloughed dirt combined to form narrow shelves in a few places along the walls of the pit. 

As she stared at the destruction below, Teyla felt what little hope she had that Halling and Carson were still alive fading. "Halling!" she called. "Doctor Beckett!" 

She studied the hole looking for any sign of her two friends. A pile of stone and wood off to her right at the bottom of the pit marked where the village well had ended up, but it took her several more seconds before she found Halling and Beckett. 

Dirt shifted on one of the shelves formed by a tree wedged against the side of the pit where the hole narrowed to her left. A few seconds later, Teyla saw Halling sit up and wrap his arms around his chest as he started to cough. More soil cascaded over the side of the shelf, and Teyla feared it was about to give way when she saw the dark grey of an Atlantis uniform jacket. 

Halling gripped the back of Beckett's jacket as he started to slip and pulled Carson back from the edge of the shelf. She heard Halling groan as he let go of the jacket and wrapped his arms around his chest again. 

"Halling? Doctor Beckett?" Teyla called, relieved they were alive and well enough to at least move. "Are you all right?" 

Beckett glanced up at her. He tried to wave, and Teyla saw him grimace when he grabbed his left arm and held it against his chest. "Aye, lass," Beckett replied. "Bruised and bloody, but more or less in one piece, I think." 

Teyla pursed her lips at the pained reply and glanced at Halling as he shifted on the shelf. 

"Jinto?" Halling said as he frantically looked around. "Jinto? Where are you?" He groaned as he started coughing again.

"Jinto is up here with me," Teyla said. 

Halling glanced up at her. "He is unharmed?" 

"He is fine," Teyla assured him. "As are the rest of our people." 

Halling pressed his palms together and raised his face toward the sky. He whispered something Teyla couldn't hear, then lowered his head as he started coughing again. 

"Halling?" Beckett said and reached forward. 

"I'll be fine," Halling replied. 

Beckett made a face, one Teyla remembered from several occasions when Sheppard or Rodney tried to pass off injuries, and shook his head. 

"Teyla, do you see my medical pack up there?" Beckett asked. 

Teyla sat up and looked around, then looked back into the hole studied the rest of the pit. She spotted the pack a few moments later, tangled in the branches of one of the trees at the bottom of the hole. 

"Your pack landed next to the stream," Teyla reported.

"Lovely," Beckett muttered. 

An ominous creaking, snapping noise came from the hole, and Teyla saw Halling and Beckett exchange an anxious look as the tree supporting their shelf slipped. 

"Teyla," Halling called. He looked up, and Teyla saw the troubled expression on his face. "I think you need to hurry." Dirt rained down into the bottom of the pit as the tree slipped more. 

"We will have you both out of there as quickly as possible," Teyla promised. She carefully eased away from the lip of the hole, then stood and turned back to the waiting villagers. She knew she had to remain calm for Halling and Beckett's sake. They didn't have time for anyone to panic.

"Halling and Doctor Beckett are both alive," she said as she walked back to the crowd standing near the tents. She saw Jinto let out a breath of relief. "However they are injured, and the ledge they are on is not stable. We must move quickly." 

"What do you need us to do?" Jansa asked. 

What indeed? Teyla said to herself. She knew she should contact Doctor Weir, let her know what had happened, and that Doctor Beckett was injured. While she was certain Weir would send a team of Marines and a jumper to assist the rescue effort, Halling's words floated back to the top of her mind. 

_"There are some among us who believe we are becoming too dependent on Doctor Weir and the people from Earth."_

While she didn't necessarily accept Halling's belief, she also knew it would take time for Weir to gather the men and equipment, not to mention the twenty minutes needed to fly from the city to the mainland. All of that was time she was afraid Halling and Beckett didn't have. 

"We will need rope --" she started to say but stopped when she heard frantic yells coming from the crater. 

"Halling? Carson?" she called back as she ran to the edge of the hole. 

She skidded to a stop near the lip of the hole, Jinto and the others crowded around her, and looked down in time to hear the groaning, cracking noise of wood snapping as the narrow ledge gave way. She caught a glimpse of the panicked expressions on Halling and Carson's faces as the shelf gave way and they tumbled down the side of the pit and landed next to the gurgling stream at the bottom of the hole. 

"Halling!" Teyla yelled. 

~*~*~*~ SGA ~*~*~*~

John tapped off his radio and gave the sealed bulkhead a last wary glance. 

"Too close," he muttered to himself as he stepped back from the landing. 

What was supposed to be a fun afternoon of sight-seeing had taken a dangerous turn once they were inside the ship. 

"Next time, we're going to the beach," John told himself. They needed to find the bridge and get out of the ship before one of them was seriously hurt. 

He waved the flashlight beam over the walls and floor, assessing the nearby damage. The walls were pockmarked with cracks and holes, and more girders were either hanging loose or buckled and bent. Daylight glimmered through the narrow gashes in the outer hull, and while none of the holes were large enough for any of them to fit through, it did explain why the air was breathable instead of stale. 

He skirted around a gaping hole in the floor, walked down the hallway, and turned down the next passage looking for another of the narrow ladders that would lead up to the next deck. 

He hadn't gone far before he found the reason for all of the surrounding destruction. Unlike the deck below, this one had small doors lined along the hall at regular intervals. John waved the flashlight through one of the openings and ducked his head when he realised what he had found was a gun turret, not unlike those he'd seen in pictures of B17s from World War II. 

John crawled inside the tiny space and examined the shattered remains of the ball turret. There was nothing left of whatever gun was used, but John did find a few broken instruments and when he moved the flashlight beam over the wall near the opening of the turret, he found a string of symbols scratched into the metal surface. 

"A prayer?" he wondered. "The name of a loved one?" John brushed his fingertips over the writing and crawled back out of the turret. Whoever the gunner was, John had to believe he or she had died protecting something important. No one willingly climbed into a suicide seat. 

He ducked under more debris as he continued down the hallway and found six more turrets, just as damaged as the first, before he found another landing and a ladder going up. He gave the gap in the bulkhead a hard look before he hurried up the stairs and stepped onto the next deck. He turned back and watched the gap for several seconds. When the gap showed no sign of slamming closed, John shook his head and ran the flashlight over the new corridor. 

John winced as a burst of static sounded in his ear. He heard a few garbled words and more static. 

"McKay?" he replied. "Ronon?" 

He thought he heard something under the static, but couldn't make out the words. He was reasonably sure the voice was Rodney's and that he was excited about something. 

"Rodney? Say again. Your signal is bad." 

"We found … Ronon thinks … gees." 

John shook his head. He had no idea what Rodney was trying to tell him, but it didn't sound like either of them were in trouble. Not that you could find them again if they were, John reminded himself. 

"No good. Head for the bridge. Repeat. Head for the bridge. Sheppard out." 

He tapped off his radio and headed up the hallway, dodging debris and the holes in the floor. He thought he had the pattern of where the ladders were located worked out, and nodded to himself when he found the next set of stairs where he expected them to be. 

Over the next thirty minutes, he zig-zagged his way up decks. From what he could tell, he seemed to be in a section of the ship focused on function over comfort. Pipes ran along the undamaged parts of the walls and ceiling. There were a few doors scattered through the hallways, but John was more focused on getting to the bridge and getting his team out of the ship than he was on exploration. 

John glanced at his watch as he reached another deck, and frowned when he realised it was already midafternoon. If they didn't find a way out soon, Teyla was going to start wondering where they were and when they didn't respond to any radio hails, John was certain she would call Elizabeth. He did not relish the idea of explaining how they were trapped in a derelict spaceship on the other side of the planet. 

The damage grew less the higher he climbed, and John found himself worrying less about falling through some unseen hole in the floor and more about the bulkheads between the decks as he climbed. Sometimes one of the bulkheads would slam closed behind him, other times the gaps remained open. As far as John could tell there was no rhyme or reason as to why some closed and others didn't. All he knew was he was never sure if he had ten seconds or ten minutes to get through the gap to the next deck. 

By his count, he was eight decks above the turret deck when he climbed through another gap and found a wide corridor free of debris. Sunlight played through a gap in the outer hull and John saw neat rows of doors spaced at regular intervals along the corridor. 

"Crew quarters?" John asked himself as he wandered down the hallway. If the lower levels were for weapons and presumably the ship's engines and other critical systems, the crew would need to be housed in the upper levels. 

John wondered if that was what Rodney had been trying to tell him, that he and Ronon had found a warp drive or something equally fascinating. If McKay had found some sort of alien engine room, John wasn't sure how he would pry him out of it. 

He spotted the ladder leading up to the next deck ahead of him and walked a little faster. He had expected to meet Ronon and Rodney before now and could only hope they were already on the bridge waiting for him. He was almost to the steps when he saw one of the doors along the hallway cracked open. 

He checked his watch and glanced from the door to the ladder. 

"The door is already open," he said to himself. "Can't hurt to see if there's anything inside." 

John took a deep breath and grasped the door handle in one hand and pulled. There was a squeal of metal as the door opened. He pointed the flashlight beam into the room and stepped inside. 

"My god," he muttered under his breath as he looked around. 

The room was small, John estimated not much larger than the jumper parked outside, but what shocked him was what the room contained. The space was lined with pallets laid out in neat rows of four across and three deep. On each of the thin beds rested a desiccated body, some were adult-sized, while others were clearly children. 

John stepped out of the room and glanced up and down the hall, counting doors. He ran down the hallway and at the junction found more doors lining the corridor in both directions. He pried open a few of the doors and found more bodies of men, women, and children. 

Now he understood what Rodney was trying to tell him. The ship had been carrying refugees. He thought back to the turrets and swiped a hand over his face. These were families, he realised, people hoping to find a new life on a new world.

"Definitely something worth fighting for," he said to himself, remembering the symbols scratched on the wall of the ball turret. He walked back to the first room he'd found and pushed the door closed, leaving the dead to rest in peace.


	7. Chapter 7

There was a sound just on the edge of his hearing. It was a soothing sound, and he let it wash over him, enjoying the moment of peace. For once, there were no emergencies, no life or death situations needing attention. He could simply lie quietly and let the soft tinkling sound lull him back to sleep. 

Memory nudged the back of his skull, something had happened, something he needed to be concerned about, but he ignored it in favor of the relaxing burbling noise. He was almost asleep when he realised what he was listening to was the sound of water trickling close to his ear. 

Water? he wondered. Where would water be coming from? There was no water in his quarters or the infirmary. 

He let the question of where the water had come from fade into the background when he felt a splash on his face. He twitched as the water spattered him again and the involuntary movement set off a throbbing in his skull and he groaned. He gave the throbbing a moment to settle down then let the sound of the water soothe him back to sleep. 

The water flicked him again.

He groaned louder and tried to move his arm enough to wipe the water off his face when a fresh spike of pain hit him. He curled his aching arm against his chest and lay still, trying to convince the pounding in his head and the spiking pain in his arm to ease enough for him to go back to sleep. As he lay trying to breathe through the pain, he thought he heard someone shouting his name.

The voice sounded worried, a corner of his mind noted. Whoever was yelling sounded afraid, but for the life of him, he couldn't figure out why. 

"Doctor Beckett?" the voice called again. "Halling? Can you hear me?" 

Halling? Carson asked himself. Why would Halling -- 

The sinkhole, he remembered. Landing on the ledge and counting himself lucky right before he felt his stomach crawl into his throat as the ledge gave way, sending him, along with dirt, rocks, and a few tree branches, tumbling down the side of the hole. 

Water flicked his face again, forcing Carson to open his eyes. He was lying on his back next to a shallow stream, dirt and smaller rocks covered his legs, making it hard to move. He was splashed again, and turning his head with another groan, he discovered he was lying at the edge of a shallow stream. He blinked as a few more droplets hit him in the face and his eyes finally focused on the tree trunk lying across the stream not more than a meter away from him. 

That was where the water splashing on him came from, he realised with another lazy glance at the water tumbling over the tree. 

"Doctor Beckett?" the voice called again, reminding Carson he needed to answer. 

"Teyla?" he replied, and frowned when his voice sounded weak. "Teyla?" he called again, louder this time. 

"Yes," Teyla replied, and Carson heard the relief in her voice. "How badly are you hurt?"

Good question, Carson said to himself. 

With a few grunts and kicks, he managed to free his legs, sat up with another groan as his shoulder and head protested the movement, and sat holding his left arm against his chest as he checked himself over. 

Subluxation of the left humerus, he mentally noted. Numerous cuts, probably minor, he added as he wiped a trickle of blood off his face. His head ached, but there was no dizziness, or nausea, so any concussion was probably minor. He groaned as he carefully flexed his right arm and bent his legs. Contusions to arms and legs, he added to the list. 

Moving was going to hurt for the next few days, he thought with a grimace. 

"Carson?" Teyla called. 

Carson looked up at her. "A bit of a dislocated shoulder seems the worst of it," he replied. "All things considered, a bit lucky, really." 

"Do you see Halling anywhere? He has not responded to my calls." 

Carson glanced around the bottom of the pit. The stream next to him pooled in a shallow depression a couple of meters away before it tumbled over another tree and disappeared back underground. He spotted his medical pack on the edge of the pool, tangled in the branches of the tree, and forced himself to crawl over to it. Thanks to the heavy-duty material, the pack appeared intact, and once he had it freed from the tree, he unzipped one of the pockets and blew out a breath when he discovered the contents were dry. He found a sling for his arm, and after carefully easing the limb into the extra support, looked around again. 

It didn't take him long to find Halling, unconscious and lying on his front, half-buried under more dirt and several large rocks.

"I've found Halling," he called up to Teyla.

He grimaced as he carefully stood and limped around the tree, dragging the pack with him. He knelt down next to Halling and propped the pack against the same tree that formed the nearby pool.

If the tree had landed a meter closer … Carson shook his head as he reached forward, pressing his fingers against the pulse point at Halling's throat. 

"Doctor Beckett?" Teyla asked a few seconds later.

Carson let out a breath of relief when he found a strong pulse beat under his fingers. "You were lucky too," Carson muttered at Halling and glanced at the thick trunk of the tree. 

He brushed Halling's hair aside and found a knot behind his ear where something, probably one of the rocks, had hit him. He didn't see any other obvious injuries and peered up at the rim of the sinkhole. 

"He's alive," Carson called.

Teyla's anxious expression changed to a smile of relief. 

"He's unconscious, though," Carson added with a glance at Halling's lower back and legs still buried under dirt and rock. " And I don't know what damage the fall may have done to his back or legs." 

He reached up to tap his earpiece, he needed to speak to Elizabeth and have a medical team sent immediately. He frowned when he couldn't feel the receiver in his ear and realised the radio was missing. Carson surveyed the ground near the stream, hoping to find the earpiece, but didn't see the tiny device anywhere. 

"Teyla, you need to radio Elizabeth," Carson said. "She needs to know what's happened and she can send a medical team for Halling." 

There was a long pause and Carson looked up at the rim of the hole. "Teyla?" 

"I will contact Doctor Weir," Teyla replied. "There should also be rope in the storage tent," she added. "We should be able to lower someone down to you soon." 

Carson nodded as she disappeared from view and went back to his examination of his patient. He remembered Halling holding his ribs before the ledge gave way and dug through the medical pack one-handed for a stethoscope. Once he had the ends awkwardly placed in his ears, he listened to Halling breathing. After several minutes, Carson was reasonably certain Halling did not have a collapsed lung, but the medical team would need to take extra precautions when moving him in case he did have broken ribs. 

"One more bit of good news," he muttered to himself as he put the stethoscope away and searched the pack for pain medication. 

He found the bottle of ibuprofen as well as the pre-measured syringes of morphine. He weighed one against the other for a moment before deciding he needed to be clear-headed, found a small bottle of water at the bottom of the pack and swallowed the pills. He rechecked Halling, then sat with his back braced against the wall of the hole and closed his eyes. Hopefully, the rescue team would arrive soon. 

~*~*~*~ SGA ~*~*~*~

John stepped off the ladder into a wide atrium and clicked off the flashlight. The space was roughly the same size as the control room in Atlantis with two doors leading in opposite directions. Part of the bulkhead in front of him as well as a section of the ceiling had collapsed at some point, letting in the afternoon sunlight. 

He took a few steps away from the ladder then glanced at the gap in the floor behind him, waiting to see if it would slam shut. After a few more seconds, he let out a breath of relief when it remained open. 

"At least you won't be trapped up here," he said to himself as he surveyed the space around him. 

He didn't see any other ladders leading into or out of the atrium, another reason to be grateful the gap remained open since Rodney and Ronon would need to find the same ladder if they were going to meet him. John eyed the gap a moment longer, just to make sure it was going to cooperate, then walked over to the left-hand door and tugged on the handle. He pursed his lips when the door refused to open. 

"Why is it never easy?" he grumbled as he studied the door and the nearby wall. 

He found something that might have been an access panel, but there was nothing immediately obvious that would open the panel or unlock the door. John blew out a breath as he stepped back and turned toward the other door blocked by the rusted debris from the collapsed wall and roof. 

"Which leaves the hard way," he added with a sigh as he pulled off the backpack, set it against the sealed door, and moved to the other side of the room. 

John studied the pile of debris for several minutes working out angles in his head of what he could move and not have the rest of the pile collapse on top of him. He chose one of the larger pieces of the metal bulkhead, grasped the edges, and pushed it up against the nearby wall. 

Something he couldn't see in the pile shifted, forcing John to stumble back a few paces when a section of the debris pile shifted with a loud screech and a clatter as a couple of precariously balanced girders crashed to the floor in front of the door along with more chunks of rusted bulkhead.

"Good job, John," Sheppard berated himself as he stared at the wreckage in front of him. "That's so much better." 

He spent several more minutes pulling more debris away from the door before he finally gave up. Every time he tried to move one of the beams or a piece of the collapsed ceiling, more debris would shift until the remaining pile was wedged so tight, nothing would move no matter how much he pulled or pried. The only thing he managed to do was cut his palms on the sharp metal edges. 

He picked a few flecks of rust out of one of the cuts with a grimace as he walked back to the other door, dug the first aid kit out of the backpack, then sat with his back against the sealed door cleaning the cuts on his hands as he studied the destruction to the ceiling and surrounding wall. He remembered the scorch marks on the outer hull of the ship and wondered how much of the damage had happened during the firefight and how much had been caused when the ship had crashed on the planet.

Were there survivors? he wondered. Had any of them tried to scavenge parts of the ship before they'd abandoned it? 

"No, not quite abandoned," he muttered. 

He looked down through the gap in the floor to the deck below. He'd found two more decks with the same wide hallways and evenly-spaced doors during his search for the bridge. He hadn't stopped to check any of the rooms, but he assumed they held more bodies. Doing some rough math in his head, John concluded there had to be close to five hundred people entombed inside the ship. 

Where had they come from? he wondered, and what had attacked them, forcing their ship to crash on the planet? Rodney was adamant no one other than the Athosians could be on the mainland now, but if the ship had crashed hundreds or thousands of years ago … John shook his head as he cleaned out one of the longer cuts on his hand. How long could they survive without access to supplies or a stargate? 

John finished cleaning the cuts on his hands and checked them over, nodding to himself when he noted the bleeding had stopped. He decided none were serious enough to need bandaging and was stuffing the first aid kit in the backpack when he heard voices below him and climbed to his feet. 

"I was not planning on getting this much exercise today," John heard Rodney grumble below him. "How much farther do we have to go?" 

"This should be the last one," Ronon said, and John heard the sound of boots climbing the steps just before Ronon's head poked above the gap.

Ronon stepped off the ladder a few seconds later, nodded to John, and turned back to the gap. Rodney scrambled up the steps behind him and gave the hole a wary glance as he moved away from the steps and stood with his hands braced on his knees, panting slightly. The gap stayed open, and John heard a sigh of relief from Rodney as he stood straight, turned away from the ladder, and studied the atrium. 

"Any problems getting here?" John asked Ronon as Rodney moved away from the ladder and walked over to the sealed door. 

"Couple of close calls with the bulkheads," Ronon started to say, and Rodney snorted. "But we're fine." 

"Easy for you to say," Rodney retorted, absently rubbing his left hand. "You have two good hands, and you weren't the one who was going to be an amputee if one of those bulkheads had closed a little faster than the rest." He stared back at the gap. "Then there was finding out what this ship was really carrying, which by the way, wasn't any sort of normal freight. That did not help with my sense of calm, either." 

John winced at the reminder they were supposed to keep McKay from getting agitated and studied Rodney for a few seconds. He was sweating and breathing heavily, but John chalked that up to climbing ladders and not a reaction from the enzyme. 

"I told you not to look," Ronon said. 

"You looked," Rodney replied with a glare. "Of course, I was going to look." 

John smiled slightly at the comment. 

"We found bodies," Ronon said to John. 

"Lots of bodies," Rodney added with a glance at the gap in the floor.

John nodded. "I know. I saw them too." 

"Explosive decompression is not the way I would choose to go," Rodney muttered as he pulled the cover off of the panel in the wall next to the door. "Though I guess it would have been quick," he added in a low mutter as he studied the innards of the panel. 

"Explosive decompression?" John said. "How can you know that?" 

Rodney glanced over his shoulder at John. "Those people died so fast they never even woke up," he explained. "My guess is the ship was ambushed." Rodney looked around at the holes in the ceiling and wall. "A blast takes out a chunk of the outer hull and …" He glanced down at the gap again. "Automatic systems probably would have held pockets of atmosphere in a few places, but those people down there never stood a chance." He gave John a somber glance and went back to studying the access panel. 

John watched as Rodney toyed with the components inside the panel, then opened the backpack again. "So," he asked, digging through the pack as he listened to Rodney mutter to himself. "Can you get the door open or not?" 

Rodney glanced over at him. "Yes." He looked back at the panel. "Maybe." He poked at something inside the panel with a finger. "I'll need my --" He turned around, and John held out the roll of tools. "Thanks," Rodney said as he took the bundle. "What did you do to your hand?" he asked with a nod at John's palm. 

John glanced down at his hand. "Got a bit cut up trying to move that," he replied and jerked his thumb at the debris piled against the other door. "This door better lead to the bridge," he added with a nod at the door behind Rodney. "Because we aren't getting through the other one." 

Rodney glanced over John's shoulder. "Give me a few minutes," he said and turned back to the open panel. 

"Did you two find anything else of interest on your way up here?" John asked Ronon as Rodney worked.

Ronon shrugged as he looked around the atrium. "Found the remains of a few weapons pods and the storage bays. The ship looks like some kind of converted freighter." He walked over to the hole in the bulkhead. "The design is old, though. No one flies ships like this anymore." 

John nodded. Ronon's assessment matched his own that the ship had been on the planet for hundreds if not thousands of years. Which begged the question, would enough of it still work that Rodney could do whatever it was he planned to do so they could get out?

"Yes," Rodney hissed. 

John glanced over at him in time to see the panel spark and Rodney jump back at the same time the door cracked open a few inches. "Good work," John said as he walked back over to the door. 

John and Ronon wedged their fingers into the opening and pulled the door open the rest of the way as Rodney gathered up his tools. 

"Stay behind me," John said as he unholstered the Beretta and inched through the door. 

Light poured through several large cracks where the hull had buckled as well as three long rows of windows built into the outer hull above his head. The afternoon sunlight highlighted rows of consoles built into the walls to John's left and right. More console stations sat in the middle of the room surrounding a central chair sitting on a short pedestal. 

"Definitely the bridge," John said, and looked back as Rodney and Ronon followed him into the room. 

"Finally," Rodney muttered, walking over to one of the consoles. 

John stood in front of another of the flat control boards and studied the layout. There wasn't a keyboard or even the series of crystal tiles that made up the control consoles in Atlantis. Instead, the board was made up of different dials, buttons, and switches. He reached out a hand to push one of the buttons. 

"Don't touch anything," Rodney said as he walked behind John and stopped at another of the consoles. "The last thing we need is for you to blow us up with some sort of self-destruct." 

John made a face but pulled his hand away from the console. "I don't suppose any of this looks familiar to you," John asked Ronon as Rodney wandered from station to station.

Ronon shook his head. "Haven't been inside many ships. Only seen them from the outside." 

John nodded and walked over to one of the consoles situated in front of what had to be the command chair. Unlike the other stations, this one had what looked like an old fashioned flight yoke in addition to the dials and switches. 

"Found the flight controls," John said to the room at large. 

"Of course you did," Rodney grumbled from where he stood at one of the consoles behind the chair. "I doubt this ship is going anywhere now. What we need are the environmental controls, the security systems or … Aha!" he exclaimed, and John turned around. 

"What?" John asked. 

"This might be communications," Rodney replied. 

To John, it looked like McKay was randomly pressing buttons. He was about to say something about triggering self-destructs when McKay looked up from the panel. 

"Try calling --" Rodney started to say, but stopped when a woman appeared in front of them standing next to the command chair.

The image reminded John of the Ancient hologram Beckett had found soon after their arrival in Atlantis. The woman in front of them had short, dark hair and wore a long duster over a rough shirt. A holster sat comfortably on her hip, and from the look the woman gave the camera, John could tell she had the bearing of a leader. She stood with her hands clasped in front of her, and from what John could tell, she seemed tense but in control as she spoke, but there was no audio. 

"Rodney," John said as he watched the woman gesture to something off-camera.

"Yes, yes, working on it," Rodney replied. He toggled more switches and glanced up at the image standing in front of them. 

"... for the Dravnian people. We may be leaving one world, but we will find a new home," the woman said with a steely glance at the camera.

"Dravnian?" John asked with a glance at Ronon. 

"Never heard of them," Ronon replied. 

Rodney twisted a dial on the console and the image changed. The woman sat in the command chair, her coat was torn, and the lights around her flickered as she grasped the armrests of the chair. Her expression still held the same air of command, however, and John couldn't help feeling impressed. 

"If anyone receives this message, we will attempt to land on the planet below. We have been unlawfully attacked by a Thranid warship which ignored our communication that we were carrying civilians. We were able to fight off the attack, though I fear most of our people perished in the initial salvo. Jaxon, if you get this message, they knew where we would be and were waiting for us." 

The playback ended, and John glanced at Ronon who shook his head. 

Rodney spun the dial again. "There doesn't seem to be anything after that," he said. 

"There aren't any bodies here," John said as he looked around the room. "Someone must have survived the attack." 

"Or these Thranids followed the ship down and captured or killed any of the crew that were left," Ronon countered. 

"You're a real ray of sunshine, you know that?" John said with a crooked smile. 

Ronon shrugged and walked over to one of the larger cracks where the hull had buckled. John followed and stood beside him, peering out at the valley floor below. Sunlight danced on the water as the stream flowed out of their valley and joined the larger river. 

"Nice view," John said. 

Ronon grunted. "Would be better if we weren't stuck here." 

"Working on it," Rodney grumbled from one of the consoles behind them. 

John smiled to himself. "Even if we can't get out, the radio might work now." He stepped closer to the crack in the hull and tapped his radio. "This is Colonel John Sheppard. Is anyone reading me?" 

"Col … ard? … Lor …" 

"Lorne?" John said. 

He couldn't make out the next words and turned to Rodney. "Anything you can do about the dirty signal?" 

Rodney looked up from the console he was studying. "You can try using the ship's comm systems, but I can't be sure that will be any better," he replied.

"Okay, which one is the comm?" John asked. "The last one of those panels you tried got us what looked like a ship's log, not the radio." 

Rodney made a face as he walked from station to station. "In case you haven't noticed, nothing is labelled in a language I can understand."

John held his temper. They were all tired, he told himself as he watched Rodney move around the room. Besides, he doubted he could do any better figuring out what the different panels were for. 

McKay stopped at a different console and fiddled with a few of the controls, then looked up. "Try that." 

"Sheppard to Lorne. Repeat your last." 

"We're … out," Lorne replied. "Should be there …" The signal disintegrated into static.

John looked over at Rodney, who held up his hands. "Without a computer to translate the control systems, that's the best I can do." 

John nodded. "We'll meet you at the jumper, Major. Sheppard out." He tapped off the radio and muttered, "Here's hoping Lorne got at least some of that."

"I heard that," Rodney grumbled from the other side of the room. 

"So how do we get back to the jumper?" Ronon asked Rodney. "You said all you needed to do was find the bridge." 

"Did you not hear what I just said?" Rodney asked with a glare in Ronon's direction. "If you think you can do a better job, please be my guest." 

"Just do what you can," John said. "Teyla has to be wondering where we are by now." 

~*~*~*~ SGA ~*~*~*~

Teyla stepped back from the pit and blew out a slow breath of relief. By some miracle, both Beckett and Halling were still alive. Now all she needed to do was rescue them from the hole and hope their injuries weren't too serious. She glanced at Jinto and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. 

"He is still alive," she said to Jinto. "Doctor Beckett will take care of him until we can get to him." 

Jinto nodded, and Teyla felt his shoulders relax under her hand. She squeezed the arm around him then let go. 

"We need rope," Teyla said to the villagers standing nearby. "We will also need medical supplies, blankets, and a way to remove the stones and dirt trapping Halling." 

"There are shovels and other farming tools in the storage tent," Kanaan said and signalled two other men to follow him.

"I will gather what healing supplies I have," Olette offered. "If someone could help?" She looked around at the gathered faces. Several others volunteered to go with her. 

"We'll get the rope," Jinto said as he tugged Wex's arm. 

Teyla watched as her people scattered back to the tents, then crossed her arms over her chest as she turned back to the pit. 

How had so much gone so wrong so quickly? she wondered. 

If there was a bright side, at least the hole hadn't formed during the celebration the previous day. With all of the excitement of the competitions, chances were no one would have noticed something was wrong until it was far too late. More of her people, not to mention members of the expedition could have been injured or killed. 

Teyla looked over the edge of the hole amazed once again that her two friends had survived such a fall. She saw Beckett sitting with his back against the wall of the hole, apparently asleep, and Halling lying on his stomach, his legs and lower back buried under a layer of dirt and several large rocks. 

She needed to get down there. She needed to see for herself that Beckett and Halling would be all right once they were out of the hole. She studied the edges of the crater looking for the best places to anchor the ropes once Jinto and Wex returned. 

"You see, I told you your people still trust you," Charin said, and Teyla spun around. 

Charin stood a few paces away, watching Teyla with a smile on her face. She grasped a walking stick in one hand as she shuffled forward until she could peer down into the hole. 

"Charin," Teyla said. "I thought you were resting?" 

Charin waved her free hand. "It is difficult to rest when the ground is shaking around you," she replied. "How serious are the injuries to Halling and your Doctor Beckett?" 

Teyla pursed her lips. "Serious," she replied. "Carson says he has a dislocated shoulder and Halling is still unconscious. Once the others return with rope, I will go down and see what assistance I can offer." 

Charin glanced at the hole, and Teyla caught the pinched expression on her face. 

"What is wrong?" Teyla asked. 

Charin glanced at her and took a step back from the hole. "I'm curious why you have not made use of your most powerful resource." 

Teyla frowned. She had the villagers gathering the needed supplies to rescue Halling and Carson from the pit. She also knew that while Olette was a competent midwife, the best medical equipment in the village was with Doctor Beckett at the bottom of the hole. All she needed to do was find a way down to them, and she would be able to help them both while they waited for the villagers to find a way to get them all out of the pit. She wasn't sure what else Charin expected from her. 

"Why have you not reached out to Doctor Weir?" Charin asked with a pointed glance in Teyla's direction. 

"I--" Teyla started to say, but Charin shook her head. 

"Your people will not think less of you if you ask Doctor Weir for help, dear," Charin said with a gentle smile. "Besides, I would think she would want to know what has happened as one of her people is trapped as much as one of yours." 

"It is not that simple," Teyla replied. "Halling said something to me earlier today. About how we were becoming too dependent on Doctor Weir and the others, and that we needed to be more self-sufficient." 

Charin sniffed. "Halling is a good man, but he lets his pride overrule his common sense at times. Don't you make the same mistake," she added with a frown. 

Teyla ducked her head in order to hide the chagrined expression she knew she wore at Charin's rebuke. Was she letting pride affect her decisions? she wondered. Was she subconsciously so focused on proving to her people that she could still act as their leader that she was dismissing the valuable help the expedition team could offer? 

She squeezed Charin's hand. "Perhaps you are right," she said. "I will contact Colonel Sheppard and ask that he return to assist with the rescue effort and then make Doctor Weir aware of what has occurred." 

Charin nodded and turned back to the village. 

Teyla reached up to her ear and tapped her radio. "Colonel Sheppard, this is Teyla. Please come in." She waited a few seconds, then said, "Colonel Sheppard? Please respond." 

Charin stopped and turned around. 

Teyla gave her a worried look when she received no response. She glanced at Charin and tried again, "Doctor McKay, please respond." 

"Does this happen often?" Charin asked and walked back to Teyla's side. 

More often than you could imagine, Teyla said to herself. The conversation she'd had with Doctor Beckett just before the ground opened up rose in her memory. 

_"Colonel Sheppard radioed earlier this morning that he, Ronon, and Doctor McKay were exploring the planet in the jumper. They are in no danger."_

_"I wouldn't be too sure of that, lass," Carson said. "It never ceases to amaze me the amount of trouble Rodney and Colonel Sheppard can find for themselves."_

"Colonel Sheppard?" Teyla tried again. "Ronon? Are you reading me?" 

"Could they be out of range of the device?" Charin asked. 

"No," Teyla said as she shook her head. "They should be able to receive transmissions from anywhere on the planet." 

Teyla turned in a slow circle studying the terrain and the sky. She had no idea where John had intended to take Ronon and Rodney. She had been so consumed with her own guilt at breakfast, she hadn't paid much attention to where the rest of her team had gone. 

She rubbed her forehead. Sheppard and the others were missing. Beckett was trapped and injured. Doctor Weir would not be happy when she heard the news. 

Teyla took a deep breath and tapped her earpiece again. "This is Teyla calling Atlantis base." 

"Atlantis Base," Chuck replied. "Teyla? Is everything all right?" 

"Unfortunately, no," Teyla replied. "I need to speak to Doctor Weir, please." 

"Hold on," Chuck replied. 

"This is Weir," Teyla heard a few moments later. "Teyla? What's going on?" 

Teyla unconsciously turned so she was facing in the direction of the city. "There is a situation here in the village," she replied. "A hole has opened in the ground between the village and the nearby forest. Halling and Doctor Beckett are trapped." 

"Are they alive?" Weir asked after a short pause. 

"Yes, however, Doctor Beckett says they are both injured." 

"All right, I'll have a medical team sent out to you. Tell Colonel Sheppard they should be ready to leave inside the hour." 

Teyla winced. "I am afraid I cannot do that. Colonel Sheppard wanted to explore some of the mainland today. He left with Ronon and Doctor McKay in the jumper several hours ago." 

"Yes, he radioed to report finding a crashed ship some distance away from the village. The three of them planned to explore the wreckage and see what they could find. They aren't back yet?" 

"Unfortunately, no," Teyla replied. "And I could not raise any of them on the radio. It is possible something may have happened to them as well."

There was a brief silence over the radio, then Weir said, "Understood. I'll have Sergeant Thompson's team accompany Major Lorne and the medical team. He can assist with the rescue effort while Major Lorne looks for the other jumper. In the meantime, we will keep trying to raise Colonel Sheppard and the others on the radio." 

"Thank you, Doctor Weir," Teyla said. Surprisingly, she felt the weight lift from her shoulders at the news help was on its way. "Teyla out." 

"Teyla?" Charin asked as Teyla tapped off her radio. 

"Doctor Weir is sending teams to assist with the rescue effort," she said. 

Charin nodded and glanced behind her as several villagers hurried across the field between the tents and the hole. "It appears you have everything under control, dear. When you have finished here, come back to my tent, I will have food waiting." 

Teyla squeezed Charin's hand. "Thank you." 

"For what, dear?" 

"For the reminder."

Charin smiled and patted her hand. "You are a good leader, Teyla. Do not let anyone tell you otherwise. Most of all yourself." 

Jinto stopped next to Teyla, a coil of rope looped over his shoulder. Wex was a few steps behind him with a second bundle of rope clasped in his arms. 

"Wex," Charin said and held out her hand, "help an old woman back to her tent." 

"Yes, ma'am," Wex said. He dropped his coil of rope at Jinto's feet and offered Charin his arm. 

Teyla watched as they walked back across the open field. She felt a hand on her arm and turned to Jinto. 

"I want to come with you," Jinto said. 

Teyla picked up the coil of rope Wex had dropped. "I don't think --" 

"I can help," Jinto interrupted. "I …" He glanced at the pit. "Please," he added in a near-whisper, "I need to help." 

Teyla studied him for a moment. She knew Halling was alive, and she could use an extra set of hands while she tried to dig him out of the pile of dirt and stones covering him. 

"All right," she agreed with a nod. "But you must follow my instructions. We will need to take care, especially with your father. Doctor Beckett is unsure of the extent of his injuries." 

Jinto nodded and shifted the weight of the rope over his shoulder. 

Teyla gave him a last, measured glance, then motioned for him to follow her as she walked back to the edge of the hole and peered down. Doctor Beckett still sat against the wall of the pit almost directly under her with his eyes closed. Teyla pursed her lips as she studied the opposite side of the pit, looking for the best way to anchor the rope. The only good option was one of the trees still standing several feet back from the edge of the crater. 

Would the tree hold? she wondered as she walked around the hole. How unstable was the rest of the ground surrounding the pit? 

She walked around the pine trees nearest the hole, looking for any sign the evergreens would not be able to support their weight. Once she was satisfied the trees were stable, she eyed the distance from the trees to the hole, and chose one, more or less at random.

"Jinto, I will need your coil of rope," Teyla said as she pulled one end of her rope out of the bundle in her arms. 

Jinto shook off the coil looped over his shoulder and held out one of the ends. It didn't take Teyla very long to splice the ends of the rope together. She tugged on the splice to make sure it would hold, then tied one end of the rope around her chosen tree. She dropped the rest of the coil over the side of the hole and nodded to herself when the end of the rope hit the bottom of the pit. 

Teyla looped the rope around her back and turned to Jinto. "Watch how I descend," she told him as she stepped over the edge. "Wait until I am all the way down, then you may follow." 

Jinto nodded, and Teyla grasped the rope on either side of her hips as she carefully walked herself down the side of the hole. 

She reached the bottom a few minutes later and looked up as Jinto started down behind her. He slipped a few times but managed to reach the bottom without incident. 

"Father," Jinto whispered as he moved around the shallow pool of water and knelt at Halling's side. 

Teyla followed him and bent down next to Beckett, resting a hand lightly on the arm that was not in a sling. "Carson," she said in a low voice.

Beckett startled awake and winced as he grabbed the arm supported by the sling. "Teyla?" he said in a confused voice. 

"Yes. I brought Jinto with me. We are here to help." 

"The medical team?" Carson asked as he looked around the bottom of the pit. 

"Doctor Weir is aware of what has happened. The medical team should be here soon." 

Beckett nodded and glanced over at Jinto and Halling. "We need to get the rocks and other debris off of him," Carson said. He started to stand, and Teyla saw his face pale as soon as he tried to move. 

"Stay where you are," she admonished. "Jinto and I will do what we can for Halling." 

Carson closed his eyes and nodded.

Teyla turned to Jinto but stopped when she felt Beckett's hand on her arm. "Be careful," he said softly with a glance at Jinto. "I think Halling may have cracked ribs. He may have other broken bones that we are unaware of." 

Teyla nodded. "We will take care," she promised. She moved around Jinto and knelt on Halling's other side. "Use your hands and carefully move the dirt," Teyla directed. "I will deal with the stones." 

Jinto nodded and started brushing the dirt off Halling's back and legs. 

They had been working in silence for several minutes when Teyla heard a low moan beside her. At the same time, Kanaan called down to her from the rim of the pit. 

"Teyla? We have the shovels," he said and held up one of the tools. 

"No," Carson muttered and Teyla glanced over at him. 

"It will be quicker and easier to remove the dirt if we use the tools," she pointed out gently. 

Beckett shook his head. "Too much risk of injuring him further," he countered as Teyla heard Halling groan again. 

"Father?" Jinto said. He bent forward then looked over at Teyla. "I think he might be waking up," he said. 

"Jinto?" Halling whispered, and Teyla saw the smile bloom across Jinto's face. 

"Yes, Father," Jinto replied. "Do not try to move. Teyla says you may be hurt."

Halling nodded then lay still. 

"The shovels may be unnecessary," Teyla called up to Kanaan and the others standing at the edge of the crater. "Doctor Beckett is concerned we may injure Halling, and we have most of the dirt removed already." 

Kanaan set the shovel on the ground. "I can see the jumper in the distance," he said. "They should be here soon." 

Teyla nodded. "Thank you, Kanaan. Please let me know when they land," she said and turned back to Halling. 

"Halling? Can you hear me?" she asked. 

Halling shifted on the ground and groaned as he opened his eyes. "Ty'la?" 

"Yes." 

"Wh're's Jinto?" Halling asked. He tried to raise his head but groaned and closed his eyes. 

Teyla rested a hand on Halling's back. "Jinto is here. He was not caught when the ground gave way, remember?" 

Jinto took Halling's hand. "I'm fine, Father. And you will be too." 

Teyla smiled at Jinto, proud that he could put his fear aside to try and comfort Halling. 

"Jinto?" 

"Yes, Father," Jinto replied and the smile disappeared. "Teyla?" he whispered. "What's wrong with him?" 

"He most likely has a concussion," Beckett said as he knelt beside Teyla. 

"Now that he's finally awake, we need to keep him conscious. Don't worry, lad, it's a bit scary, I know, but your father should be fine." 

Jinto nodded, and Carson focused on Halling. 

"Halling? Can you understand me?" Beckett asked. "I need you to open your eyes and look at me." 

Teyla watched as Halling slowly opened his eyes. "Jinto?" he asked. 

"Jinto is fine," Carson replied. "Right now, we're more concerned about you. Where are you hurt?" 

Halling stared at him for a moment. "Head aches," he muttered.

"I'll bet it does," Carson replied with a tiny smile. "I think you got quite a knock. Anywhere else?" 

Halling frowned. "No' sure," he slurred a few seconds later. 

"All right," Beckett said. "You're still a wee bit buried here. Teyla and Jinto will finish getting the rest of this off of you and then we can have a proper look at you." 

Carson pushed himself to his feet and Teyla took his arm as he swayed. He tipped his chin away from Halling and Jinto, and Teyla helped him walk a few paces away from where Halling lay on the ground. 

"Doctor Beckett?" 

"It may be nothing more than the concussion talking," Carson said with a glance back at Halling and Jinto, "but I'm concerned that Halling couldn't give me more information about his injuries. You need to be careful as you remove the rest of the rocks. He could be bleeding and we won't know it until it's too late." He stopped speaking and winced as he rubbed his head. 

"You are injured as well and shouldn't be moving around so much," Teyla said as she eased Carson down to the ground. "Rest. The jumper will be here soon and we will be able to help both of you." 

Carson nodded as he leant back against the wall of the hole, cradling his arm against his chest.

When he was settled, Teyla turned back to Jinto. "Help will be here soon. Let us see about removing the rest of these stones before they arrive."


	8. Chapter 8

Rodney wandered from station to station around the bridge, trying to figure out what the various consoles would have controlled. The flight controls were obvious thanks to the yoke that even he could identify. He'd been lucky with his guess about the communications console, though he hadn't been able to do much. What he needed to find was the ship's internal security systems. 

He studied another of the control boards and shook his head. Nothing looked like it would control defensive systems. 

"Was it too much to ask for clearly marked signs?" he muttered to himself. Of course, for all he knew, the stations were labelled, he just couldn't read them. He thought about the computer Sheppard had left in Atlantis and shook his head as he studied the various consoles.

He made a complete circuit of the room and stopped at the first panel again. "Obviously not the communications systems," he muttered to himself. "So what are you?" 

He ran a finger around the odd blank space in the middle of the console surrounded by various dials, switches, and buttons. "Why leave all of that empty place?"

He glanced at the board next to him and saw the same strange configuration. The various buttons and switches were lined up along the edges of the console with a small space, roughly twenty centimeters square, in the middle of the panel that was empty. 

"A screen, maybe?" Rodney looked around the room. A few of the consoles on the back wall had large blank spaces above the stations, but the stations clustered around the command chair did not. "Okay, so some way to receive information." 

He studied the two stations again. The two consoles had different arrangements of controls. The station in front of him had more dials and buttons, while the next station was mostly toggle switches. There was one thing both had in common, however, a small blue button in the upper left-hand corner of the panel. A quick check of the stations behind him, and he saw the same blue button on all of them as well.

He remembered pushing the blue button at random just before the hologram appeared. Was that how these people powered up the stations? he wondered. 

He was reasonably certain pushing the button wouldn't do anything catastrophic to either the console or the ship. Even if the people who built the ship couldn't be bothered to include a manual release for the main hatch, they had to be smart enough not to put a self-destruct button within easy reach of anyone who walked past one of the stations.

Rodney glanced up at Sheppard and Dex standing near the front of the room staring through the crack where the bulkhead had separated, and nodded to himself. Whatever they were watching outside was enough to keep them distracted from what he was doing at the consoles which was fine with him. He didn't want either of them to know how much he was guessing here. 

Rodney waited a moment longer, then pushed the blue button on the first console. The empty space in the middle of the panel glowed to life and a stream of data flowed across the screen. He couldn't read what the data was, but each line was laid out with a short string of symbols followed by several lines of more symbols. 

"A log like Sheppard thought?" he asked the console. "Or some sort of database?" 

He moved to the next console and pushed the blue button again. More data appeared in the empty space, and Rodney let out the breath he'd been holding when what looked like diagnostic data for something flowed across the screen. He toggled one of the switches and watched the flow of data change.

"Maybe you're clearly marked after all," Rodney said as he studied the data. 

Now he had something to work with. All he had to do was sort out what the different screens were telling him, and he could figure out what each of the consoles controlled. 

"Good, good," he muttered as he walked to the next station. He pushed the blue button and glanced at the screens of data. 

"Rodney?" Sheppard asked. "How's it going?" 

"Making progress," Rodney replied as he studied the screen in front of him. From what he could tell, the console controlled the environmental systems, one of the stations he would need if they wanted to get out of the ship. 

He moved to the next console, pushed the button, and frowned when it remained dark. "Or not," he said and glanced up at Sheppard. "We could have a problem." 

"What kind of problem?" John asked. 

"So far I've found what could be a database or ship's log." Rodney pointed to the station he'd been using when the hologram appeared. "What I think is the radio and the environmental systems." He nodded to two more of the consoles.

"Okay. What's the problem?" Sheppard asked. 

Rodney blew out a breath as he moved around another station that refused to work. "Some of these systems no longer work." He pointed to the panel in front of him that remained dark. "If I'm going to be able to do anything to control the bulkheads above and below the ladders, and more importantly, get the exterior hatch open, I need to find either the security systems or the engineering panel." 

He walked past the environmental control console again, glanced at the readouts, and did a double-take. "And we need to hurry," he added as he toggled through the screens of data in front of him. 

"Why?" Ronon asked. 

Rodney looked up at him. "Because if I'm reading this right, we don't have a lot of power left. Without power, I can't do anything to get the bulkheads or the main hatch open." 

Ronon walked back over to one of the larger cracks in the hull. "Maybe we can force our way out." 

"And how do you suggest we do that?" Rodney asked with a snort of impatience. "Have you found anything that looks like a cutting torch or a crowbar around here? Because I haven't." 

Ronon turned back with a glare and John held up a hand. "Keep trying to find something in the ship's systems we can use," he said to Rodney. "Ronon and I will see about finding a plan B in case we can't get out the front door." 

Rodney shook his head and went back to deciphering the information from the various stations. Nothing near the command chair did what he needed, and he started on the consoles lined along the back wall. He found two more dead consoles and was pressing the blue button on a third with little hope of it working either when the screen glowed to life. He studied the data for several seconds, then smiled to himself. 

"Yes," he hissed and twisted one of the dials to the right of the screen. 

"Well?" Sheppard asked. 

Rodney glanced over at John and Ronon standing on the other side of the command chair. "I think this is the control panel we need," he explained. 

"And you can get the bulkheads and the door open?" 

"Probably," Rodney replied. "Give me a few minutes to figure out how it works." 

He studied the array of buttons and switches in front of him, wishing for the third or fourth time he had his computer, and pressed one of the buttons. The screen changed from a schematic of the ship to what looked like a targeting system. 

"No, no, no, don't do that," he muttered and pushed the button again. He was relieved when the screen changed back to the schematic. He glanced around and found Sheppard and Ronon watching him. "Wrong button," he muttered over his shoulder and went back to studying the console. 

"All right," he said to himself, "if external systems are on that side, maybe the internal ones …" He pushed one of the toggle switches down. There was a familiar-sounding clunk outside the room and a dot on the screen changed from green to red.

"Do I want to know what that was?" John asked as Ronon disappeared out the door. 

"The bulkhead over the ladder is closed," Dex reported as he walked back into the room. 

"Ahh, good," Rodney said, ignoring the glare Ronon aimed in his direction, and turned back to the panel. 

"How, exactly is that good?" John asked. 

"Because it means I'm on the right track," Rodney replied. "I think I've almost got this." 

"Good because we haven't found any other exits," Sheppard said.

Rodney nodded and went back to studying the panel. He squinted at one of the other toggle switches, took a deep breath and flipped it from its down to its up position. A grinding noise came from the atrium, and Ronon ducked back through the door. 

"Bulkhead is open again," he said. 

"Okay, now we're getting somewhere," Rodney said. 

He glanced at the schematic, saw the dot was green again, and flipped up two more of the switches. Several dots on the screen changed from red to green, and Rodney turned around. "The bulkheads should all be open now," he said. 

"And they will stay that way?" John asked. 

"As long as the ship has power, I think they will. I can't make any promises once the reserves are gone." 

Sheppard nodded and turned to Ronon. "Go check the first few decks. Make sure the hatches are open and report back." 

"On it," Ronon replied and left the bridge. 

"What about the main hatch?" John asked as he walked over to Rodney's side. 

"Still working on that," Rodney admitted with a sideways glance at John.

"Let me know when you have it sorted out." 

"Hmm," Rodney replied and went back to examining the screen and the various controls. 

Several minutes later, Rodney thought he had the sequence that would open the main door when he heard heavy footsteps behind him. 

"Sheppard," Ronon said as he walked back into the room.

"Well?" John asked. 

"Looks like McKay is right. I went down about five decks and all of the bulkheads are open." 

"Rodney, what about the hatch?" 

Rodney flipped up two more toggles and pressed one of the buttons. A green light appeared on the screen where he thought the main door was, and he nodded to himself. "I think I found the right sequence, and it looks like the door is open." 

"It looks like?" Sheppard asked with a cocked eyebrow. 

Rodney glared at him as he walked back to the panel with the environmental controls. "The only way to know for certain is to go look," he replied as he toggled a few more switches on the panel. "But at least we won't have to climb down in the dark." He looked up from the panel as the sconces lining the back all lit up. "That should have reset the lights. The ones that still work anyways." 

"Good news," Sheppard replied.

"Hmm," Rodney replied, distracted by a readout on the screen. "Maybe not all good news. We need to go," he added as he looked from John to Ronon. "Now."

"Why?" Ronon asked. 

Rodney hurried from one console to the next, pushing the blue button again, hoping that would power down the different stations. He walked back to the environmental panel and shook his head before he powered down that station as well. 

"I'm not sure what else I activated," he explained, "but something is drawing a lot of power. More than what should be needed for some emergency lights and to keep the bulkheads open."

"How much time do we have?" Sheppard asked. 

"No way to know for sure," Rodney replied. "It could be five minutes or five hours. All I can say for certain is the power levels are dropping." 

Sheppard nodded and motioned toward the door. "In that case, I think it's time we got out of here." 

Rodney wasn't going to argue and followed Sheppard out the door and back to the ladder. 

~*~*~*~ SGA ~*~*~*~

Teyla divided her time between removing the rest of the smaller stones trapping Halling, checking on Beckett dozing against the wall of the pit, and encouraging Jinto to keep Halling awake. She glanced at Carson as she dropped another of the rocks. 

Was he merely exhausted from the accident? she wondered. Not unreasonable. Or was he more seriously injured than he had told her? 

She took in the way Carson held his arm awkwardly against his chest, even with the sling, not to mention the pain lines around his eyes, and feared the latter was, in fact, the truth. 

She turned back to Halling in time to see Jinto watching her. 

"Tell your father about tracking the hart this morning," Teyla said as she hefted another stone. 

Jinto swallowed and nodded. He rested a hand on Halling's back and said, "Kanaan says I'm a natural-born tracker."

"Oh?" Halling murmured. 

Jinto glanced up at Teyla. She gave him an encouraging smile and continued removing rocks. 

"Umm, yes," Jinto replied. "We were following a doe and two young through the woods. When we reached a clearing, the doe wasn't there. Everyone searched the ground for any tracks, but we couldn't find anything in the springy grass. 

"Wex and Tero wanted to go to the east, toward a little stream they knew about, but I found some crushed leaves and broken twigs on the bushes leading out of the clearing to the north. I pointed them out to Kanaan, and he agreed we should go north."

Jinto stopped speaking and Teyla looked over at him. She saw him looking up at the lip of the hole. "That's where we were when you found us," he whispered and wiped his eyes. 

Teyla smiled when she saw Halling reach out a hand and pat Jinto on the arm. "Proud," he murmured.

She was working on how best to remove the largest of the rocks trapping Halling's legs when she heard a buzzing noise overhead, looked up, and saw the underside of a jumper hovering above the pit, blocking out the afternoon light. As she watched, the rear hatch opened and a rope dropped down into the hole. A few seconds later, she saw someone wave to her, clip something to the rope, and slide down until he landed on the ground a few feet away from her. 

"Sergeant Thompson," she greeted as she stepped over to his side. 

"Heard you could use some help," Thompson replied with a smile as he unclipped his harness from the rope. 

"Thank you," Teyla said with a nod at Corporal Daley as she slid down the rope and landed next to him. "Both of you." 

Daley unclipped her harness and tugged on the rope. Someone out of sight in the jumper pulled the rope back up, the hatch closed, and the jumper flew off. 

"Major Lorne is going to land in the clearing," Thompson said as Teyla watched the jumper disappear. "He'll drop off Freddo, Masters, and Doctor Cortes before he goes looking for Colonel Sheppard." 

"Do you have a way to get Halling and Doctor Beckett back to the surface?" Teyla asked. 

Thompson nodded. "My guys are bringing a rescue litter along with Doctor Cortes' medical kit. What sort of injuries are we dealing with?" he asked with a glance from Halling to Beckett. 

"Doctor Beckett believes he has a dislocated shoulder," Teyla replied with a concerned glance at Carson.

"And Halling?" Thompson asked.

"Doctor Beckett is concerned about Halling's ribs," Teyla told him. "There is also the potential for injuries we have not found yet due to the debris." She nodded at the rocks trapping Halling. 

Thompson nodded. "Daley, check on the Doc. I'll see about getting the rest of this off of Halling." 

"Yes, Sergeant," Daley replied and knelt next to Carson. 

Thompson bent down, smiled at Halling, and grasped Jinto on the shoulder. "Name's Derek," he said to Jinto.

"I remember you," Jinto replied. "You won the axe throwing contest. No one's ever broken the target like that before." 

Thompson smiled. "You should have seen my fastball when I was in college." He turned to Halling and added, "Halling? How are you doing?" 

"Hmm," Halling replied. "Is Jinto all right?" 

Thompson glanced at Teyla. "Doctor Beckett believes he has a concussion. We have been trying to keep him awake." 

"Jinto is fine," Thompson assured Halling as he studied the rest of the rockfall for a moment. 

"The stone pinning his lower legs is too heavy for me to lift alone," Teyla said. "It should pose little problem for the two of us working together." 

Thompson nodded and studied the large rock. "I think you're right," he agreed. He walked around Halling to Teyla's side. "If we lift from this side, it should roll off." 

Teyla considered the rock and how Halling was pinned under it then nodded. "Agreed. Jinto, keep an eye on your father's legs. If you see any blood, tell me immediately." 

Jinto swallowed and nodded. 

She gave Jinto a moment, then looked at Thompson. "Ready?" she asked him. 

Thompson set his feet and grasped the edges of the rock with his fingers. "Ready," he replied. 

Teyla took her place next to him, found a place where she could grip the stone and said, "On three. One. Two. Three!" 

Even with Thompson's help, the rock was still heavy and unwieldy. Teyla felt her legs burning as she lifted the stone upward. She knew the moment the weight was off of Halling's legs as she heard him groan. 

"Teyla?" Jinto called. 

"Is there blood?" Teyla asked through gritted teeth. 

"Umm, no, but --" 

"Almost … there," Thompson said with a grunt. 

Teyla set her feet, and with one last heave, the rock slowly rolled off Halling with a thud and a splash as it landed in the pool of water. 

"Halling?" Teyla called as he knelt down beside him and started brushing the dirt and smaller stones off Halling's legs 

"Carefully," Carson said. 

Teyla turned to see Beckett standing behind her with Daley beside him. The cut over his eye was bandaged and another bandage covered his right forearm.

"Halling, can you feel your legs and feet?" Beckett asked.

"Yes," Halling replied with a pained wheeze. "Something wrong with right leg," he added through clenched teeth.

"All right, let's see if we can't sort that out," Carson replied. He walked around to Halling's other side, squatted down beside him, and Teyla watched as Carson carefully brushed the dirt away from Halling's leg one-handed. When he reached his ankle, Carson pursed his lips and Teyla could see Halling's foot lying at an odd angle. 

"We will need to find something to use as a splint," Carson muttered and pointed at his medical pack. "Caitlin, love, hand me my kit, would you?" 

Daley picked up the pack and held it out to Carson. 

Beckett sorted through the pack and pulled out a plastic leg brace. "Teyla, if you would support Halling's leg and foot, I think we can safely roll him onto his back, then I can get a brace on that ankle." 

Teyla nodded and placed her hands where Carson indicated. 

"Halling," Carson said, "we are going to roll you over. Let Derek do the work. If you feel any sharp pain, let me know." 

Halling squeezed his eyes shut and nodded. 

"Derek, if you would take Halling's shoulders, and Caitlin, his hips, please." 

Beckett waited until Thompson and Daley were set then with a nod, they quickly rolled Halling over onto his back. 

"Gah!" Halling groaned and clenched his fists. 

"All right?" Carson asked Halling, and Teyla could tell he was trying to get his breathing under control. 

Halling took a couple more quick breaths and nodded. 

"Let's get that foot sorted, and I'll give you something for the pain," Carson said as he picked up the brace. 

"Teyla, this is Lorne," Teyla heard over the radio. She stood and looked up at the lip of the hole.

At the same time, she heard Carson say, "No, leave his boot for now." 

Teyla turned back and watched as Carson gently set Halling's foot in the brace and tightened the straps.

Teyla stepped away from Halling and tapped her radio. "This is Teyla."

"Sergeant Garcia and Corporal Masters are on their way to you with Doctor Cortes and the rescue litter." 

"Understood," Teyla replied.

"I have a homing signal from Colonel Sheppard's jumper. We're going to head out and find them now. Did you want to come with us or stay here?" 

_"You must find a balance between your two lives."_

Charin's advice echoed in her mind as she glanced over at Carson listening to Halling's chest with a stethoscope, then up at the rope she'd spliced together dangling from the edge of the pit. Once again she was put in a position where she had to choose between her responsibilities. Did she leave to help her team, or stay to help Halling and her people deal with the devastation from the ground opening up around them? Who needed her more? 

"Teyla?" Lorne called over the radio. 

Teyla shook herself. "I will remain here, Major. My people will need my help with the clean up from the hole opening so near the village." 

"Understood," Lorne replied. "I'll radio you once I know more on Colonel Sheppard's status." 

"Thank you, Major. Teyla out." 

Teyla tapped off the radio and looked up when dirt and a few smaller stones cascaded down into the pit. Two men stood at the lip of the hole readying what appeared to be a long metal basket. 

"Ready, D?" one of the men called down. 

Thompson walked over to Teyla. "Garcia and Masters with the rescue litter," he said to her as he waved to the two men. "Go ahead and send it down, Freddo," he called up to the top of the hole.

Teyla nodded and walked back to Carson sitting next to Halling. "Doctor Beckett? The rescue team has arrived." 

"Good," Beckett replied with a tired smile. "I think we're all more than ready to get out of here." 

Teyla watched as Garcia and Masters lowered the litter down, each controlling one of the ropes tied to an end of the basket so that it remained level. When the litter landed on the ground a few minutes later, Thompson walked over and unclipped it from the ropes. He nodded to Daley and they each picked up one end of the basket, carrying it over to Halling. 

They set the basket down, and Teyla watched as Carson directed Thompson on the best way to move Halling. In a matter of a few minutes, Halling was lying in the basket, and Thompson tightened the straps for the basket. 

"Ready?" he asked Daley, stepping back from the litter. 

"Ready, Sergeant," Daley replied as she checked the straps then moved to the foot of the basket and grasped the handles. 

"One. Two. Three," Thompson murmured, and on 'three', they picked up the basket and carried it back to the waiting ropes. 

"Don't worry, lad," Beckett said to Jinto as the litter slowly rose out of the pit. "I think your father will be just fine. He might need surgery to fix that ankle, and he'll be needing the crutches again, but he will be right as rain in no time." 

The basket was lowered again a few minutes later and Thompson turned to Beckett. "Your turn, Doc," he said. 

Beckett eyed the basket and then the lip of the hole. "You're sure this is safe?" he asked as he lay down in the basket and Thompson tightened the straps around him. 

"You'll be fine, Doc," Thompson reassured him with a smile. "We won't let anything happen to you. And if Freddo does drop you, I'll make sure Major Lorne assigns him to the guard detail the next time Doctor Parrish wants to go on a field trip looking for new plants." 

Teyla smiled at Carson's sour expression. "And I will be sure to have him attend my advanced stick fighting class," she added as she squeezed Carson's hand. 

"Oh, that makes me feel much better," Beckett replied with a resigned sigh as the litter rose out of the pit. 

Twenty minutes later Corporal Masters helped Teyla out of the pit and she looked around for Halling and Carson. 

"Doctor Cortes volunteered some of the villagers to carry them to one of the tents," Masters said as Teyla handed him the climbing harness she'd used to escape the pit. 

"Thank you, Corporal," Teyla replied. She turned to Jinto still untangling himself from another of the harnesses. "Let us go see how your father is doing," she said and wrapped her arm around Jinto's shoulders as they walked back to the village. 

~*~*~*~ SGA ~*~*~*~

John jumped down the last few rungs of the ladder and glanced around as Rodney and Ronon climbed down behind him. They'd made good progress, John thought, covering more than half the distance back to the main hatch in a little over thirty minutes. The problem was he'd had to do a lot of zig-zagging along corridors on his way up to the bridge, and he wasn't exactly sure where they were in relation to the main hatch; the corridor they were in did not look familiar. 

"Let me guess, you managed to get us lost," Rodney said. He stepped off the ladder and moved out of the way so Ronon could come down behind him. 

"I'm not lost," John replied with a mock glare. "I just want to … make sure we're going the right way." 

Rodney snorted and looked around. "Uh-huh." 

"Looks like we're back to the level with the weapons pods," Ronon said as he joined them. "The storage compartments are down another four levels. The main hatch should be six below that." 

John nodded and led the way down the hallway to the next ladder. 

"You're sure you know where you're going?" Rodney asked as they found the ladder. 

"We're going down, that's the right direction," John replied.

"But are we going to be on the right side of the ship when we get there?" Rodney asked. "In case you've forgotten, it's a mess down there. We might not be able to find a way across if we end up on the opposite side of the ship from the hatch." 

John said nothing as he stepped onto the ladder and disappeared through the gap in the floor. In truth, he had the same concern, but there was little he could do about it. He was fairly certain they were staying on the correct side of the ship, and he figured Dex would say something if they weren't. He told himself the worst case was they would need to backtrack up a few levels and find a new way back down. 

They were on the storage level when the lighting dimmed for a moment. 

"That's bad," Rodney said as the lights slowly came back up. 

"Yeah," John said. So much for backtracking, he thought to himself as he led the way down the hall. He heard Rodney's heavy breathing behind him and glanced back. "You all right?" 

"I'm running around inside a ship full of dead people that is about to trap us in here," Rodney replied with a glare. "Of course, I'm not all right." 

John stopped and turned around. "That's not what I meant," he said, his tone serious. 

Rodney stood in front of him, absently rubbing his left hand. "I'm fine," he replied. 

John gave him another measured look. Rodney was breathing hard, but he wasn't shaking or sweating more than normal for the amount of running around they were doing. 

The lights dimmed again. 

"We need to move," Rodney said with a pointed look at the light above them. 

John waited until the lights glowed back to life, then turned and jogged down the hallway to the next ladder. 

Ten minutes later they were back on the deck with the main hatch. 

"Looks like you had the right sequence," John said as the late afternoon sunlight trickled in through the open door at the end of the hallway. 

John took a step toward the opening but stopped when a shadow crossed in front of the door.

"Someone's out there," Ronon said as he unholstered his Beretta. 

"Maybe there were survivors after all," John said as he readied his gun. 

"How many times do I have to say this?" Rodney asked with a scowl. "Other than the Athosians, there is no one else living on the mainland." 

"Colonel Sheppard?" John heard over the radio. 

"It's Lorne," John said to Ronon. "Major, this is Sheppard," he added with a glance at the hatch.

"Good to hear your voice, sir," Lorne replied. "We just landed and are standing outside some sort of ship. Can I assume you, Ronon, and McKay are still inside somewhere?" 

"That would be correct, Major," John replied as he walked toward the open door. 

He saw Lorne step inside the ship and caught a glimpse of the rest of Lorne's team waiting outside. He raised a hand as Lorne walked toward him. 

"Told you," Rodney muttered to Ronon as John holstered his Beretta. 

"Good to see you, sir," Lorne said as he met John halfway down the corridor. "Everyone all right?" he added with a glance at Rodney and Ronon. 

"We're fine," John said. "Bit surprised to see you though. I didn't think we'd been gone long enough to call out a search team."

Lorne pursed his lips. "It's been a bit of a busy day, sir," he replied. "There was an inci --" 

"Can we finish this outside," Rodney interrupted with a wary glance at the door. "In case you forgot, we probably don't have a lot of time before that hatch seals." 

"Sir?" Lorne asked as the lights dimmed around them. 

"McKay is right, tell me outside," John said and turned toward the hatch. "Let's get out of here." 

They were all outside and several paces from the opening when the door slid closed behind them with a thud. Rodney glanced at John then shook his head and walked back toward the clearing behind the trees where John noticed two jumpers waiting. 

"All right, Major, what brings you all the way out here?" John asked as he, Ronon, and Lorne followed in Rodney's wake. "We haven't been gone that long." 

Lorne smiled as he walked. "Teyla and Doctor Weir became concerned when none of you answered the comms, sir." 

John pursed his lips. "Yeah, we figured out too late that the ship blocked radio signals."

Lorne glanced back at the ship and nodded.

"Why were they trying to radio us?" John asked. 

Lorne stopped walking and ducked his head. He glanced up at the sky and then at the two jumpers.

John frowned, as Lorne stalled. What had happened? he wondered. 

"Something happened in the Athosian village, sir," Lorne said. 

"What sort of something?" John asked. 

Lorne took a step back and glanced from John to Ronon and then Rodney who had walked back over to the rest of them. "A sinkhole opened up at the edge of the forest, not far from the village itself." 

"Was anyone hurt?" Ronon asked. 

"Umm, unfortunately, yes," Lorne replied. "Halling and Doctor Beckett were caught when the ground gave way." 

John heard a low growl from Ronon at the news. Lorne must have heard as well as he gave Ronon a quick look.

John had seen a few sinkholes in California when he was growing up. Most weren't more than a few feet deep. From the expression on Lorne's face, he had the sneaking suspicion this was more than just a shallow pit. 

"How big is the hole?" he asked. 

"From what I saw when we flew over, it's pretty wide, maybe forty or fifty feet." 

"How deep?" Rodney asked with a quick glance at John. 

Lorne pursed his lips. "It looked deep. According to what Teyla said when she reported what happened, she thinks they fell about thirty feet." 

"You said this was near the forest?" Rodney asked. 

Lorne nodded. "Yeah, in that field where we ran all those races yesterday." 

Rodney nodded. "The village well is in that field." 

"So?" John asked. 

"So, the most likely explanation is that there is some sort of underground river or stream. That was the source of the water. The Athosians just saw a convenient place to dig a well, but the river has been eroding the substrate for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. The only thing holding up the surface layers was the water itself. Once they started pumping out the water …" Rodney glanced from Ronon to John. "The ground gave way under its own weight."

"Strange though," Rodney mused as he pinched his lip. "If that were the case, there should have been some warning beforehand, muddy water, for example, for weeks before the sinkhole formed, but no one ever reported any problems." 

John saw Rodney was about to go off on a scientific tangent and held up a hand. "That's not what's important right now," John reminded him.

Rodney glanced at him and shook his head. "No, umm, no. Of course not." 

"How bad are they hurt?" Dex asked. 

Lorne swallowed at the hard look Ronon gave him. "They're both alive," he replied. "I dropped off Sergeant Thompson's team along with Doctor Cortes to help with the rescue effort before coming to find you guys." 

Rodney about-faced and walked back to the jumper without another word, Ronon close behind him. 

John fished the remote for the jumper out of his pocket and pressed the button to open the hatch. "Let's get back to the village," he said as Ronon and McKay disappeared inside their jumper. 

"Yes, sir," Lorne replied. He glanced at the ship behind them and added. "What do you want to do about the ship, sir?" 

John glanced back at the sealed hatch. "For now, nothing." He turned back to Lorne. "It was carrying refugees, Major." 

Lorne glanced at the ship and nodded. "Yes, sir," he replied, and John saw in his somber expression that Lorne understood what he meant. 

John gave the ship one last look, then walked over to the jumper. He heard Rodney talking to someone as he pushed the button in the rear section to close the hatch. 

"And what about Beckett?" Rodney asked as John walked forward, sat in the pilot's seat, and ran through the preflight checks.

"Teyla," Ronon said in reply to John's questioning look. 

"Ahh," John replied and glanced at Rodney as he tapped his earpiece. 

"They're going to be fine," Rodney said, and John heard the relief in his tone. "Halling broke his leg and cracked a few ribs. Teyla says he'll need surgery to fix his ankle. Carson dislocated his shoulder. Other than that, cuts and bruises, what you'd expect." 

"Good," John replied as the jumper lifted off. He waited until Lorne's ship took up a position on his starboard side and slightly behind him. "Let's head back to the village and see about getting both of them back to the infirmary." 

Rodney sat back in his chair with a smug grin as the jumper cleared the trees.

"What's so funny?" John asked as he brought the jumper around and set a course back to the village. 

"What?"

"You look like the cat that ate the canary," John told him. 

"What's a canary?" Ronon asked. 

"A small bird," Rodney replied with a distracted glance at Dex sitting behind him. He looked over at John and added, "I was just thinking about Carson and all the times he's threatened me with that impossible-to-get-out-of sling. Finally, the tables are turned, and he's going to know what it feels like." 

"It's not Beckett's fault you're so accident-prone," John replied with a smile. 

"Accident-prone? Are you serious? I was shot! Not to mention trapped in a cave-in. Neither of those were even remotely my fault." 

John grinned and concentrated on flying the ship as Rodney sputtered in the chair next to him. He had missed yanking McKay's chain over the last few months. It felt good to be back to what they considered normal.


	9. Chapter 9

Carson woke from a light doze when he heard voices nearby. He opened his eyes, looked around, and found Serafina Cortes and Sharon standing beside Halling's bed on the other side of the infirmary. 

When did we return to the city? he wondered.

He remembered lying on a pile of cushions in one of the Athosian tents listening to Teyla and Charin talking after his rescue from the sinkhole. Teyla had told him they were waiting for Sheppard and Lorne to return with the jumpers. At the time, he had accepted that and let himself drift after Serafina had given him a dose of morphine. 

He looked down at himself and found he was dressed in a set of scrubs, his left arm supported by a sling. He had no memory of returning to Atlantis. He groaned as he shifted on the bed and watched Sharon adjust the blanket covering Halling. 

"Keep his leg elevated," Serafina said to Sharon as she read something on the tablet computer in her hand. "His scans didn't show any damage to his skull, but we will need to track his mental awareness once he is awake." 

Sharon nodded and made a note on her computer. "Teyla radioed while you were still in surgery. Jinto is asking when he can see his father." 

"You may inform Teyla that she and the boy may have a short visit," Serafina replied with a smile. "Not too long, though. I doubt Halling will be awake to know they are here." 

Carson frowned at that. Just how serious were Halling's injuries? he wondered. 

He sat up with a low groan as the ache in his shoulder flared, pushed the bedcovers aside, and sat on the edge of the bed for a moment, letting the pain ebb. Before he could start to stand, however, he felt a hand on his right arm, holding him in place. 

"And where do you think you're going?" Serafina asked with a stern expression on her face. 

"I wanted to check on Halling --" Carson started to say with a nod at the bed across the room. 

"Halling is going to be fine," Cortes replied. 

Carson sighed at the pointed look she gave him and settled back in the bed. 

"We inserted two pins to stabilise the bones in his ankle while it heals," Cortes continued as she pulled up the blanket. "He also has two cracked ribs and we're monitoring the concussion. Barring any complications, he should recover without any long-term issues." 

Carson nodded and winced as his shoulder throbbed. 

"As for you," Serafina said as she smiled down at Carson. "You have a mild concussion of your own to worry about, not to mention several cuts and bruises along with the subluxation." She nodded at the sling. "You need to rest and not worry about Halling for the time being." 

Carson knew she was right, but he couldn't help the feelings of helplessness and frustration from lying in his own infirmary. He gave her a crooked smile that turned into a hiss of pain as he tried to find a comfortable position in the bed.

"I'll bring you your next dose of pain medication," Cortes said and made a note on the computer in her hand. 

She came back a few minutes later with a paper cup, handed Carson the pills, and poured him a glass of water. 

"Thank you, Serafina," Carson said once he swallowed the pills. 

"You're welcome. Try and get some rest," she said as she took the glass from him and adjusted the blanket covering him. 

Carson settled back in the bed and was dozing again when he heard the main door to the infirmary slide open. He opened his eyes and watched as Teyla and Jinto walked into the room. Teyla smiled and nodded in his direction as she led Jinto over to Halling's bed. 

"Father?" Jinto called in a near whisper as he stopped at the end of Halling's bed.

"Your father is going to be fine," Serafina told him with a smile as she walked over to them. "He will need help for the next several weeks, but given some time, he will be back to his normal self." 

"Thank you, Doctor Cortes," Teyla said as Jinto moved around the side of the bed and sat down in the waiting chair. 

"You're welcome, Teyla. Don't stay too long, please. My patients need their rest." 

"We will keep our visit short," Teyla promised. 

Serafina nodded and walked back to her desk. 

Teyla glanced over at Carson, turned to Jinto, and said, "I will be right back."

Jinto looked up at her with a nod then focused on Halling again. 

"Carson, how are you?" Teyla asked as she stopped next to his bed. 

"Not bad, all things considered," he replied with a smile. "Everyone else is all right? No one else in the village was injured?" 

"Thankfully, everyone else is fine. It is well we moved the tents away from the forest, or more people could have been hurt." 

Carson nodded and winced as his shoulder throbbed. "What about the rest of your team?" he asked with a glance around the room. "I remember someone mentioning Colonel Sheppard found a ship crashed somewhere on the planet?" 

Teyla nodded. "Colonel Sheppard, Ronon, and Rodney are all well. They had some trouble getting out of the ship, but they were not injured." 

Carson nodded. "Has Rodney figured out where the ship came from, at all?" 

"No," Teyla replied. "They found a recorded message that mentioned Dravnians and Thranids, but neither Ronon nor myself has ever heard of such people. Rodney plans to search the Ancestors database for more information. 

"From what Colonel Sheppard told me, it appears the ship crashed on the planet at some point in the distant past. There is a meeting scheduled in the morning to discuss the matter with Doctor Weir."

Carson grimaced as he shifted in the bed. "And how are you doing?" he asked, giving Teyla a sympathetic look. 

"I do not --" 

Carson shook his head, and Teyla stopped speaking. "I heard you and Charin talking while we were waiting for Sheppard and the others to return," he told her when he saw the expression of denial on her face. "Something about finding your way with your people and with us?" he prodded. 

Teyla looked down at her hands. "It is my problem," she said. "I will find a solution." 

"You of all people should know by now, you have people here more than willing to help you." Carson held out his hand and waited for Teyla to take it. "I'll do anything you need me to," he told her. "I'm certain the others will as well, but you need to talk to them. Tell them what's been troubling you." 

"Charin gave me the same advice," Teyla said. 

"Charin is a wise woman," Carson replied with a gentle smile. "Is there any particular reason you want to keep this from Colonel Sheppard and the others?" 

Teyla pursed her lips. "I do not believe Colonel Sheppard or Doctor McKay will really understand. Both have found their calling here in Atlantis." She glanced at Halling and Jinto. "They do not feel the frustration of being pulled in two different directions by opposing responsibilities." 

Carson frowned. "I think you are selling them a bit short, my dear," he said. "They may not have the close family ties back on Earth that you have with your people, but that doesn't mean they won't understand your feelings or want to help." He watched the mix of emotions as they played across Teyla's face. "Just think about it, won't you?" 

Teyla took a deep breath and smiled as she squeezed his hand. "I will," she promised. "Thank you, Carson."

"You're more than welcome, lass," he replied. 

He watched as she walked back over to the other bed, patted Halling's arm, then smiled at Jinto. "Doctor Cortes asked that we keep our visit short this evening," she said in a low voice. "We need to leave your father to rest tonight. We will return tomorrow when he will be awake." 

Jinto nodded and stood. "Good night, Father," he said and followed Teyla out of the infirmary. 

Carson shifted in the bed until he found a position that took some of the pressure off his aching shoulder and tried to sleep. He could admit he had never really thought about the dual responsibilities Teyla dealt with, balancing her life in Atlantis with her duty to her people on the mainland. 

Had Sheppard? he wondered as his eyes drooped. Or Elizabeth? 

The next time he woke up, it was to a repetitive tapping sound coming from his left side. Carson opened his eyes and glanced around the infirmary. The lights in the room were set to their normal daytime setting and he assumed it was morning. That assumption was confirmed when he saw Halling sitting up on the other side of the room slowly eating from a bowl. 

"About time," a voice said. 

Carson looked to his left and found Rodney sitting in the chair next to the bed, a laptop computer on the roll-away table in front of him. 

"I was beginning to think you planned to sleep the whole day and I have meetings I have to go to soon," Rodney added as he finished typing something on the computer and turned to Carson.

"Good morning to you, too, Rodney," Carson replied sarcastically as he tried to sit up. 

Carson was a bit surprised when Rodney stood and helped rearrange the pillows behind his back. He nodded his thanks as Rodney sat back down and focused on the computer. As he typed something on the keyboard, Carson realised Rodney's typing had been the source of the tapping that had woken him up. 

"How long have you been here?" Carson asked once he was more comfortable. 

Rodney glanced down at his watch. "A while," he replied. He glanced over at Carson, then focused on the computer. "Wanted to make sure you were okay," he muttered, never looking up from the keyboard. 

Carson smiled down at his arm and shook his head. "I'm going to be fine," he said and winced as he tried to adjust the strap for the sling. 

"Annoying, isn't it," Rodney said, still focused on the computer. 

Carson saw Rodney's sideways grin and had a biting comment on the tip of his tongue when Serafina walked over and stopped at the end of the bed. 

"Good morning, Carson," Serafina greeted. "How are you feeling this morning?" 

"A bit sore," Carson admitted. "But not too bad, really." 

"That's good," Cortes replied with a smile. "Once you've had something to eat, we'll talk about your rehab schedule for your shoulder and then I think you can go back to your quarters and rest." 

"Thank you, Serafina, love," Carson said. 

Carson was still eating when the door to the infirmary opened a few minutes later and Sheppard walked in. He stopped at Halling's bed for a few moments, then walked over and stood next to Rodney's chair. 

"Carson," Sheppard said in greeting. "How are you feeling?" 

"Better, thank you," Carson replied. 

"You gave all of us quite a scare yesterday," Sheppard said. 

"Yes, well, it certainly wasn't part of my plan for the day to get sucked into a sinkhole." 

"It never is," Rodney muttered as he closed the laptop and stood. 

"No, I suppose not," Carson replied remembering the number of times Rodney or one of the others came back from missions with various injuries. 

"We have a meeting with Elizabeth in a few minutes," Sheppard said to Carson. "Is there anything you want one of us to bring back for you?" 

Carson finished his juice and shook his head. "No need, Colonel, but thank you all the same." He waited until Rodney was a few steps away then reached out and tugged on Sheppard's sleeve. "Rodney was all right after everything that happened yesterday?" 

Sheppard glanced over at Rodney standing near the door, then looked back at Carson with a nod. "He didn't have any relapses if that's what you're asking. Doctor Cortes checked him over last night. She says most of the enzyme is gone now, so he should be fine." 

Carson tugged on the strap around his neck. "Good to hear." 

Sheppard smiled and glanced down at his watch. He started to say something, but Carson waved his free hand toward the infirmary door. 

"Go," Carson said. "I'll be fine." 

Sheppard stepped back from the bed with a wave and followed Rodney out of the infirmary. 

~*~*~*~ SGA ~*~*~*~

Elizabeth watched as Sheppard's team filed into the conference room and found seats around the triangular table. So much for a quiet few days, Elizabeth thought to herself. A sinkhole and a crashed alien ship. How did a simple trip to the mainland for the summer festival end up so complicated? she wondered. 

"Teyla? How is Halling this morning?" Elizabeth asked once everyone was settled. 

"He is doing as well as can be expected," Teyla replied. "He does not remember much of what happened yesterday, though Doctor Cortes says that is to be expected, and to not be overly concerned. He will need to remain in the infirmary for another day or two, but should be able to return to the mainland by the end of the week."

Elizabeth nodded and made a note on the pad next to her. "Good. Is there anything we can do to assist the village?" 

"I am not sure," Teyla replied. "My people have never dealt with a natural phenomenon such as this before." 

"I understand the sinkhole formed near a well. I can send a team of people to help find a new water source." 

"Before you do any of that, we need to send a geology team back to the mainland to figure out what caused the sinkhole in the first place," Rodney said. "If more of the area is unstable, the Athosians may need to move the village." 

Elizabeth noticed Teyla's resigned expression as well as her sagging shoulders at this news. "Teyla? Is something wrong?" 

Teyla unclenched her hands and shook her head. "No, Doctor Weir. My people regularly moved with the seasons on Athos. If it becomes necessary, we can move again." 

"Doesn't mean you have to like it though," Sheppard said with a knowing smile.

"Are you willing to have a science team come and survey the area around the village?" Elizabeth asked Teyla. 

"Thank you, Doctor Weir," Teyla replied and bowed her head. "I would appreciate any help you can offer to the village." 

Elizabeth nodded and glanced at Rodney. 

"I'll get Volkov to assign a team," Rodney promised. 

"Very good," Elizabeth said. She made another note, then said, "Now, Colonel, what can you tell me about this ship you found?"

Elizabeth listened as John explained about finding the ship half-buried in the side of a mountain, getting stuck when the main hatch sealed, and finding their way back out. 

"And there was nothing else describing who these people were or where they came from?" Elizabeth asked once he was finished. 

Sheppard shook his head. 

"I didn't have a chance to find any more information in the ship's systems," Rodney said. "But I did some digging through the Ancient database this morning." 

"When did you have time to do that?" Sheppard asked. 

"While I was waiting for Carson to wake up," Rodney replied. "No one bothers me when I'm in the infirmary." 

"And here I thought you were actually concerned about us when you came to visit," Sheppard said with a crooked smile and a glance at Teyla and Ronon. 

"I was, I mean, I am," Rodney stuttered with a glare at John. 

Sheppard grinned and waved off Rodney's attempt to explain. "What did you find out?" he asked. 

Rodney gave him one last scowl, then turned to Elizabeth. "The Ancients knew about the Dravnian homeworld. The planet had a stargate, and more importantly for the Ancients, it was a rich resource for the metals they needed to build their ships." 

"And the Thranid's planet?" Elizabeth asked. 

Rodney shrugged. "There wasn't any information on the Thranid planet."

"Ronon mentioned something about Travellers, people that lived their entire lives on ships," Sheppard said. "Maybe the Thranids did the same thing." 

"It would be a good strategy for avoiding the Wraith," Teyla added.

Rodney shook his head. "Good guess, but no. Wherever they were from, they were known even to the Ancients as basically pirates. There are several mentions in the database of Ancient ships encountering Thranid ships and destroying them out of hand. They either never found the Thranid homeworld or never looked for it." 

"The message we heard said the Dravnians were leaving their planet," Sheppard said. "It sounded to me like they were trying to evacuate as many people as possible." 

"Running from the Wraith?" Ronon suggested. 

"Or there was some sort of plague or natural disaster," Rodney retorted. "The fact is, we will never know for sure." 

"And neither of you have heard of either of these civilisations?" Elizabeth asked with a glance first at Ronon and then at Teyla. 

Ronon shook his head. 

"The names are not familiar to me," Teyla replied. "As you are aware, there are several different pirate factions still in the galaxy today, they may be descended from these Thranid people." 

"So chances are the Dravnians at least are extinct," Sheppard said with a frown. 

"Most likely, yes," Rodney replied. 

"We could try dialling the planet the Dravnians are from," Sheppard suggested. "You said they had a stargate. Did you find a 'gate address for the planet?" 

"Yes," Rodney replied. "And I'm already way ahead of you, as usual. I already tried to dial the planet after I found the address. The 'gate couldn't get a lock." He turned to Elizabeth and added, "There might be some interesting technology, not to mention their database, still inside the ship. I can --" 

"No," Sheppard said. 

Rodney glared back at John. "No? It's a spaceship, Colonel. Even if it's not Ancient, there could be something buried inside it we could use. From what I could see --" 

"No," Sheppard said again, his expression hard. "We're not going to do anything with or to that ship. We leave it alone." 

"But --" Rodney started to argue. 

"It's a tomb, Rodney," Sheppard interrupted with a hard look at McKay. "Let those people rest in peace."

Rodney studied John's face for a moment and Elizabeth wondered if he would push the issue of investigating the ship or let the idea go. It was clear to her John wasn't going to be swayed to change his mind.

"We'll leave the ship alone," Rodney said a few seconds later and sat back in his chair. 

"I believe that is the right thing to do," Teyla said with a nod at Sheppard. 

"I agree," Elizabeth said and glanced from one face to the next. "However, first the Ancient waypost last year, and now this crashed ship, it does raise the question of what else might be on the mainland that we don't know about."

"Parrish has been bugging Heller, who then keeps emailing me, for permission to take a botany team to the mainland," Rodney said. "If we're doing a geologic survey, anyway, may as well let the rest of them go too." 

"Feeling generous all of a sudden?" Sheppard asked with a smile. 

Rodney snorted. "Hardly. I'm looking forward to the peace and quiet with all of them out of my hair for a few days." 

John shook his head. "Things seem quiet enough at the moment," he said to Elizabeth. "Now is as good a time as any to take the jumpers and some of Rodney's scientists and do a more complete planet survey." 

"All right," Elizabeth said. "Rodney, if you and Colonel Sheppard would coordinate the pilots and Marines to escort each team, we'll go ahead with the scientific exploration of the mainland."

Rodney pushed back his chair and stood. "I'll talk to Radek and we'll start putting together the science teams. We'll prioritise the geologic survey of the village and that team should be ready to go tomorrow." 

John nodded and stood as well. "Sergeant Stackhouse could do with some flight time; I'll let him know he has a mission." 

Elizabeth watched them leave the room. "Teyla," she called and waited for Teyla to turn around. "Can I have a word?" 

"Certainly, Doctor Weir," Teyla replied. She nodded to Ronon who left the room, then sat back in her chair. "Was there something else you wished to discuss?" 

Elizabeth set her pen down on the pad of paper and clasped her hands in front of her. "Is everything all right? I couldn't help noticing that you seem a bit on edge." 

Teyla glanced at the closed door to the conference room, then down at her hands. "It has been a difficult few days." 

Elizabeth pursed her lips. "I get the feeling whatever is the matter, there is more to it than just the sinkhole and Halling's injuries. Is there something else going on in the village?" 

"Everyone in the village is fine," Teyla assured her with a tight smile. 

Elizabeth gave her a shrewd look. "I remember the first time I led a peace negotiation back on Earth. The two parties involved had been fighting a low-grade guerilla war with each other for years, but after several incidents where innocents were injured and in a few cases, killed, the international community decided it was time to step in and find a different solution. A diplomatic expedition was put together and we tried to broker a peace between the two factions. 

"I was sent overseas for weeks at a time working out the details of the treaty. Meanwhile, Simon was back home dealing with the death of his brother and trying to balance a new job at the hospital with everything he needed to do to plan a funeral and deal with his brother's estate." 

Elizabeth paused and looked down at her hands clasped on the table. "I felt so guilty I was unable to be with him. I wasn't even able to attend the funeral. Simon said he understood, that he didn't blame me in any way, but that didn't change the fact I wasn't there when he needed me." 

Elizabeth studied Teyla for a moment. "Travelling through the stargate with Colonel Sheppard and balancing your duties to your people on the mainland must be equally difficult." 

Teyla relaxed and nodded. "I did not expect the challenges to be so stressful," she admitted. "I do not want to abandon my people, however, I also know the work I am doing here is just as important." She leant back in her chair. "How did you find balance between your family and your responsibilities?" 

"I called home every night," Elizabeth replied. "I did whatever I could to help Simon until the negotiation was complete and I could go home." She sat forward in her chair. "If you need to spend more time on the mainland, I will support that decision as I'm sure the rest of your team will as well. Please don't think you must choose one life over the other." 

Teyla smiled and stood. "Thank you, Doctor Weir. I will think about what I want to do and let you know." 

Elizabeth picked up her pad and pen. "Good. We're here to help any way we can, you know." 

Teyla nodded and fell into step beside Elizabeth. "May I ask, what happened to the two groups involved in your peace treaty? Did your negotiation have the desired outcome?" 

Elizabeth smiled and waved her hand over the sensor for the door. "For a few years, yes," she replied. "Sadly, old habits tend to die hard. Before we left Earth, there were rumors the treaty had started to fall apart." 

"I am sorry to hear that." 

"So was I," Elizabeth replied. 

~*~*~*~ SGA ~*~*~*~

Teyla left the conference room and wandered through the corridors of the city, trying to decide what she should do about her conflicting duties to Colonel Sheppard and her people. She was grateful for Doctor Weir's understanding, but instead of making her decision easier, she was left even more off balance. Charin and Elizabeth both believed she could live in both worlds, but Teyla still couldn't see how. 

She knew she could do more for her people if she remained a part of Colonel Sheppard's team. She could maintain the Athosians' current trade agreements as well as forge new ones that would benefit her people as well as those living in the city. Her position on Sheppard's team also gave her leverage when dealing with the Earth politicians that Doctor Weir dealt with on a regular basis. 

More than that, she respected John and trusted his leadership. She genuinely liked Rodney, even if he did try her patience on a regular basis, and she felt a connection to Ronon thanks to their shared experiences as well as their shared loss. They, along with Carson, Doctor Weir, and many others were just as important to her as Halling, or Charin, or any of her people on the mainland. 

So what was she to do? she wondered. Where was the balance point between her old life and her new one?

She walked back to her quarters, lit the candles lined along the window sill and sat cross-legged on the floor with her eyes closed. She took several deep breaths and willed herself to let go of her guilt and confusion. She hoped if she could settle her mind, the answer would appear. Half an hour later she gave up, stood, and blew out the candles. For once, meditation was not helping her to find the answer. 

She knew Colonel Sheppard would go running in the lower sections of the city when he needed to think and that Rodney tended to tinker when he was working through a problem. Teyla blew out a breath, picked up her workout bag, and left her room. If stillness wasn't the answer, perhaps she needed something more active to settle her thoughts, she decided and headed toward the nearest transporter. 

An hour later, she stood in the center of the workout room, her weight centered, as she slowly moved through another stick fighting form. She bent low, sweeping one leg in a low kick as she spun around then came back up with her right arm extended and her left held low in a guard position. She finished the form and took several deep breaths as she relaxed and walked back over to the bench against the wall. She patted the sweat off of her arms and face with a towel and stared at her reflection in the mirror across the room as she drank some water. 

"Did it help?" a voice asked behind her. 

Teyla spun around and found Sheppard leaning in the doorway for the workout room. 

"Colonel," Teyla said in greeting, doing her best to hide her surprise that she had been discovered. 

Sheppard walked over to the bench and picked up the pair of fighting sticks. 

"Was there something you needed?" Teyla asked after a brief silence. "I did not think we had a practice scheduled for today." 

John spun one of the sticks in his hand and studied Teyla's face. "We don't," he replied with a smile. "But you didn't answer me," he said as he focused on spinning the sticks in his hands. "Did this," he waved one of the sticks at the room in general, "help?" 

She gave John what she hoped was a puzzled look as she set the bottle of water back on the bench. 

"Something's been bothering you for a few days now," Sheppard said. "Even McKay has noticed." 

Teyla gave Sheppard a tight smile. "I am merely concerned for Halling," she replied. 

"Funny, I just left the infirmary after checking on Carson. Halling was sitting up and talking with Jinto. He seemed pretty okay to me." Sheppard paused a moment. "Ronon says you've been acting strange ever since you left to pick fruit with the Athosians. Did something happen while you were gone?" 

Teyla heard the hard bite behind Sheppard's light tone. "Nothing like that," she assured him. She took a few steps away from the bench and turned around. "The truth is, I was reminded of how much I am missing what is happening with my people by living in Atlantis." 

Sheppard frowned and set the sticks back on the bench. "Do you want to leave?" he asked, and Teyla heard the underlying hurt in his tone. 

"No," she told him. She stepped closer to John and rested a hand on his arm. "Being here, being a part of your team, that is important to me as well." She dropped her hand. "But it is difficult. Jinto and his friends are nearly men. Isla's baby boy? The one born here last year? He is now walking and starting to talk." 

Teyla turned away from Sheppard and walked back to the center of the room. "Charin is getting older, too," she admitted softly. "I am not sure how many years I may have left with her." She looked up at the intricate pattern worked into the ceiling of the room, then glanced back at John. "When Rodney broke his leg a few months ago, that was the longest period of time I had spent with my people since we came to the city from Athos." 

Sheppard pursed his lips and nodded. "I think we can work something out so you can visit more often," he said. "Something that doesn't involve breaking any of McKay's bones." He smiled and Teyla found herself smiling back. "These survey missions of the planet Weir wants us to do will take a few weeks at least. Take that time and spend it with your people." 

"And after that?" Teyla asked.

John shrugged and walked over to her. "After that, I'll do what I can to make sure you can make regular trips to the mainland." 

Teyla heard the sincerity in his tone and bowed her head. "Thank you, John." 

"Any time," Sheppard replied as they walked toward the door.

~*~*~*~ SGA ~*~*~*~

Rodney stepped out of the transporter, the laptop tucked under one arm as he squeezed the therapy ball with his left hand. He entered his lab, set the computer on his desk and looked around the room. Between everything that had happened with Ford and then the enzyme, it had been almost a month since he'd been in the lab. He glanced through the notes Radek had left for him on the status of the science department, then stuffed the ball into his jacket pocket and wandered over to the work table. 

His foot kicked the cloaking generator stored under the table, and Rodney stared at it for several moments. He had given up on his idea of finding a way to use the city's shield and the cloak at the same time after the disastrous events on Doranda. The weapon blowing up had shaken him more than he had wanted to admit, and at the time he wasn't at all confident he wouldn't end up doing something similar to Atlantis if he meddled with the city's only form of defence. 

He tapped the generator with his foot, lost in thought. 

_"I try and make it a habit not to make the same mistake twice,"_ he remembered saying to Sheppard right before the Arcturus weapon blew up, nearly taking him and John, not to mention the _Daedalus_ , with it. 

He thought he had learnt over the last few months how to keep his curiosity, not to mention his ego, under better control. He hadn't let either get the better of him on Rivis even as dreams of returning the city to full power danced in his imagination as he worked on the Ancient subspace emitter. 

"You can do this," he told himself glancing down at the cloaking generator scavenged from the jumper they'd left on Lurra. 

His theories on how to get the dual emitter to work were sound, he'd checked and rechecked the math several times when he had first come up with the idea. There was no reason why his plan shouldn't work. After another moment of hesitation, Rodney made his decision. 

He walked over to a storage cabinet on the far side of the room and pulled out the boxed components for the combination shield and cloaking emitter he'd been working on before the mission to Doranda. He picked up the box and quickly dropped it on the end of the work table when he lost his grip and the box started to slip. 

"Of course you can only do this with two good hands," he grumbled. 

He glared down at his left hand and tried to flex his fingers. The annoying pins-and-needles feeling was still there, and he still tended to drop things on a regular basis, climbing up and down ladders the day before hadn't done much to help either the pain or his dexterity. Carson seemed pleased with his progress, but Rodney was frustrated that after almost two weeks, he still couldn't do much with his left hand. 

He pushed the box over to the end of the table where his stool sat then went back for his notes and drawings for the new emitter. He was still reviewing his notes when he heard a tap as the door to the lab slid open and Zelenka walked into the room. 

Rodney caught the tiny, knowing smile on Radek's face when he caught sight of the pieces for the emitter scattered on the table. Before he could say anything in his defence, Zelenka schooled his expression and stopped at the end of the work table. 

"Rodney," he greeted. "I understand you and Colonel Sheppard found an alien ship on the mainland yesterday." 

Rodney grunted as he pulled more components out of the box and laid them out on the table. "We did." 

Radek rolled his eyes at the terse response. "Okay," he drawled. "Do you want a science team to go back out to the ship and investigate?" 

"No," Rodney told him. "The ship is off-limits." He glanced up and saw Zelenka's frown. "There were … people … still inside the ship," Rodney explained. 

"Ahh," Radek replied, his expression shifting from confusion to sadness. 

Rodney waited a moment then said, "But it does prove we need to have a better idea of what is out on the mainland. Elizabeth wants an in-depth survey done. Detailed maps, an idea of the indigenous plants and animals. Obviously, if they find any structures, I'm to be notified immediately." 

"Obviously," Radek replied. 

Was that sarcasm? Rodney wondered as he gave Zelenka a hard look. "A geology team also needs to survey the area around the Athosian village." 

Radek nodded. "As soon as we heard about the sinkhole yesterday, Doctor Volkov started to assemble a team to take samples and help the Athosians deal with the damage." 

Rodney nodded as he studied one of his drawings for the emitter. "They also need to survey for a new well." He looked up at Zelenka. "Preferably one that won't cause another sinkhole to form in a few years." 

"I will let them know." Radek paused and picked up one of the pieces for the emitter. "I am glad to see you are working on the new shielding idea again." 

"Mmm," Rodney replied, not paying attention as he shuffled through his design notes. 

Radek sighed and put down the component. "I will just go set up the meeting for the department heads to discuss the planet survey," he said after a brief silence. 

"Good," Rodney muttered. Radek was almost back to the door when Rodney looked up and added. "I'll let you know when I'm ready to test the emitter." 

Radek glanced back with a nod and a smile, then left the lab. 

Several hours later, Rodney leant back from the work table, vertebrae popping as he moved, and studied the emitter in front of him. It wasn't as elegant as the Ancient design, but he told himself it was only a scale model for testing. 

The prototype was almost a meter in length and another half meter in circumference. A long conical tip in the center with four smaller tips surrounding it made up one end while the other end was a mass of wires and plugs. 

No, it wasn't pretty, he thought with a wry smile, but it should do what he needed to test his idea. 

He picked up the emitter and was twisting it back-and-forth in the light, studying the various connections and wires, when the door to the lab opened, and this time Sheppard walked into the room. 

"Some kind of bomb?" John asked as he pulled out the stool on the other side of the work table and sat down. 

"Figures the first thing you think of is a weapon," Rodney replied. "No, it's not a bomb, or a grenade, or any other kind of explosive. It's a prototype design for a new shield emitter." 

"Okay," John said. "What's wrong with the current emitters?" 

"Nothing," Rodney replied as he set the prototype back on the worktable. "If I can get it to work, this one will allow us to use the shield and the cloak at the same time. No more need to switch between them. Might come in handy if anyone figures out we're still here." 

Rodney looked up and found Sheppard watching him. "Anyone, in particular, you have in mind?" 

He heard the defensiveness in John's tone but didn't care. "You mean besides the Wraith?" he retorted. "Assuming you're right and Ford did somehow manage to escape that hive ship before it exploded, let's just say, I'm not terribly interested in following up on any more so-called leads from anonymous sources when it comes to searching for more Zed-PMs." 

Sheppard studied him for a moment longer, then nodded. "You might have a point," he admitted, looking down at his hands clasped on the table.. 

"Of course I'm right," Rodney retorted, but the statement lacked any real heat. 

He didn't take pleasure in pointing out that Ford was untrustworthy. He knew how seriously Sheppard took the concept of team and how much it hurt him when something happened to one of them. But Ford had drugged him against his will. John needed to see that Ford was the one to break ties with the team, not the other way around. 

Rodney picked up one of the spare pieces from the emitter and twisted it in his fingers, debating whether or not to ask the question that had been burning in the back of his mind ever since he'd been dragged back to Ford's hideout after the others had left the planet in the dart. 

"Do you think …" He started, then stopped. 

"Do I think what?" John replied. 

Rodney dropped the component on the work table and took a deep breath. "Do you think the link is the reason Ford told his men to hold me as a hostage while the rest of you attacked the hive ship?" He glanced at John then down at his hands. 

"Maybe that was part of it," Sheppard replied. "He also knew about the chaguo ndugu stuff. Of the three of you, Ford knew holding you would have the highest chance of forcing me to go along with his plan." 

"Because he didn't think I could get away," Rodney muttered. He flexed the fingers of his left hand and sighed. 

"He did underestimate you," John agreed with a tiny smile. He leant forward on the stool and added. "Of course, there could be another reason." 

Rodney gave John a puzzled glance. "Such as?" 

John toyed with a spool of wire sitting on the edge of the table. "I think some part of the Ford we knew was also trying to protect you." 

Rodney snorted.

John looked over at him. "He told me he didn't think you'd do well on the mission when I suggested bringing all of you along." 

"He tried to kill me twice on P3M-736," Rodney argued. "Kind of hard to believe he wanted to keep me safe this time." 

John crossed his arms over his chest and looked down at the emitter. "We'll likely never know for sure why Ford did what he did." 

Rodney let the silence grow for another few moments, then changed the subject. "Was there any particular reason you came down here?" 

"Yeah, actually. Teyla radioed me. She wanted to remind me she had brought some of those fruit pies you liked so much back with us yesterday and suggested meeting in the mess hall for dinner." 

Rodney felt his stomach rumble at the mention of food and stood. "Why didn't you say so? Let's go before Ronon eats all of them." 

John shook his head as he stood and followed Rodney out of the lab. "See, always thinking with your stomach." 

Rodney ignored the jibe as he led the way back to the transporter. 

~*~*~*~ SGA ~*~*~*~

Several hours later, Rodney sat on the converted jumper seat in the rec room, playing with the challenge coin John had given him. He had spent the last several months working to repair his relationship with Sheppard after everything that happened on Doranda. He saw the coin was tangible proof John had finally forgiven him. 

Did Sheppard see it the same way, though? he wondered. That was the question.

"Thought I'd find you in here," Sheppard said as he walked into the room a few minutes later. "Bit surprised you aren't playing though." 

Rodney glanced up from his study of the coin and nodded at the corner where the keyboard usually sat. 

The now-empty corner. 

"Nothing to play," he replied. "I guess whoever brought it was reassigned back to Earth." Rodney glanced down at his left hand. "Besides," he added, "can't play much at the moment anyway." 

John sat down beside him on the bench. "Is the ball helping?" 

Rodney shrugged. "Carson seems happy enough. He says it's just going to take time." 

Sheppard nodded and draped his arm along the back of the seat. "So if the keyboard isn't here, why are you?" 

Rodney shrugged again and went back to flipping the coin in his hand. "We're good, right?" he asked after a few minutes of silence.

"Yeah, Rodney, we're good," John assured him.

Rodney sat back on the seat, the coin clutched in his hand. "I can't promise I won't do something else that screws things up. I'm kinda messed up when it comes to family, just as Jeannie." 

John smiled. "I don't have the best track record either," he replied. "We'll figure it out." 

Rodney nodded and stuffed the coin in his trouser pocket. 

"You left the mess hall before I could tell you the news," John said a few minutes later. 

"What news?" 

"Elizabeth has authorised a mission to go back to Ymber and pick up the dart I left there," John explained. "When the _Daedalus_ gets back here, she'll ask Caldwell to fly us out to the planet. The dart should fit in one of the hangar bays, and once we're back here, we can park it out on one of the piers for you and your scientists to tear apart." 

Rodney sat up and stared at Sheppard. "Do you have any idea what we could learn from a functioning dart?" 

He jumped up from the bench seat and paced back-and-forth, forgetting for a moment John was even there. 

"Radek has been working on a few ideas to create a shield that would block the Wraith culling beams but we didn't have a way to test it after …" He shuddered at the memory of having Cadman stuck in his head. 

He turned back to John and continued ticking off ideas. "If we figure out how their communications gear works, we could hack those systems and track whole hive groups. Then there's all of the technology behind how the Wraith build their ships in general." 

He left the rec room in a rush, barely aware of Sheppard following him. "I need to talk to Radek. We need to have a plan ready to go when the _Daedalus_ gets back here. Hooker will want more samples of the organics," Rodney muttered. "I can't wait to tear apart one of those engines and see how it works. Maybe we could …" 

Rodney stepped into the transporter still listing off all of the people he'd need once the dart was back in Atlantis, he never saw the private smile on Sheppard's face as he followed Rodney into the transporter. 

"Oh, and now we know you can fly it," Rodney added with a glance at John as the transporter opened on the hallway leading back to his lab. "We can test the manoeuvrability and flight systems too." 

"Hang on, I'm not so sure I like this part of the plan," John replied, but Rodney ignored him. 

"Then there's everything with the containment field. Think what something like that could do for storage and the transport of supplies on the _Daedalus_ ," Rodney continued as he led the way back to his lab. 

FIN

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story marks the twentieth story in my SGA series, basically a whole extra season's worth of content. Wow. When I started writing these stories I never expected to continue past the first few episodes of the first season. However, the more I wrote, the more ideas I had, and you guys have been wonderful with the comments and kudos, letting me know you love reading them as much as I love writing them. There are at least three more stories coming for season two (and of course, _Grace Under Pressure_ will be included!). There may be a story following _Michael_ as well if I can figure out how to make it work. 
> 
> I've also started the early planning for a season three series. I'm thinking of calling that series "Team Sheppard". What do you guys think? Good? Or a bit too on the nose? 
> 
> Anyway, this note is a way for me to say thank you. Thank you for reading. Thank you for the comments and the kudos. Thank you for following me on this journey with our favorite team.


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